A/N
I think i could have improved this a bit more. But i have been writing this one chapter for some time now, so im just going to release it so i can go to writing chapter 3.
I hope you enjoy.
Shanxi orbit, Pangu system
Heavy Cruiser, UNS Manaus
Commodore Kendis Moran
Kendis looked through the small window he had in his quarters. His view outside was dominated by a planet. It was Shanxi, and Kendis could see a few faint lights on the night side of its surface. Kendis was a little disappointed by the image as the window was not real but a screen connected to on of the cameras outside, to make the room seem more luxurious, after all there are no real windows on modern UN warships.
He was currently preparing for a meeting of civilian and military leaders in Shanxi. Switching the screen settings to a mirror. He looked at the mirror and made sure his uniform was in top shape. He made small fixes until he was finally happy.
Kendis hoped to make a good first impression during the meeting.
He took the tablet from his table and opened it again, it contained some basic information about Shanxi that naval intelligence had sent him. He decided to read it again so he would remember them for the meeting.
Naval intelligence report on the status of new colonies
Subject: Shanxi colonial sector
Colony population: 128 920
Colony capital: Nanxiang
Colony governor: Cai Jin
Colony garrison: 162th and 151th Frontier brigades (8,000 men), 1 squadron of the 1197th colonial air wing, 415th colonial garrison fleet. (A/N: 415th is Kendises fleet)
Shanxi is a newly established colony inside the relay network, it is sponsored by the Chinese federal republic and the New Hunan planetary union. Its main purpose is to act as a new hub for surrounding future colonies. Due to its location inside the relay network it has seen large growth since its founding. Shanxi is notable for its large equatorial desert which encompases 56% of the plannets surface, it has no large oceans. There are small temperate zones suitable for human habitation on its poles from which the northern pole was chosen as the area for early colonisation. There are calls to attempt ossification and other small-scale terraforming by the colonial ministry but no decision has yet been made by the government due to the need for study on its viability.
There is an interest from civilian industries and the sponsor nations for the asteroid belt in the Pangu system, as it is suspected of being mineral rich. A mineralogical expedition into the Asteroid belt is planned in the future by Glencore plc.
Current status of orbital infrastructure
Satellite network / Partially operational
Hainan Station / Primary space station for the shanxi system, partially operational
Orbital Station M-SX-482 (Nord) / Orbital defence Station, partially operational
Orbital Platform O-SX-042 / Orbital defence platform, operational
Orbital Platform O-SX-026 / Orbital defence platform, partially operational
Orbital Platform O-SX-113 / Orbital defence platform, not operational
Orbital Platform O-SX-098 / Orbital defence platform, not operational
Communication station 81467 / Fully operational
Kendis placed it back and took one last look at the mirror. Then he walked out of his quarters out into the hallways of the manaus. He walked through its many hallways until he finally reached his destination.
He opened a door and a large open space came into his view full of activity. This was the hangar bay of the Manaus containing its 2 fighter squadrons and other spacecraft.
While walking through the hangar he admired the fighters in the hangar; there were 8 Hyperion class fighters parked on the other side of the hangar. He knew there were more in other parts of the hangar. He had always liked the hyperions visually, their design for possible atmospheric warfare made them much more visually pleasing than the cobras that were solely designed for space warfare.
But he did not have the time to stop and admire them properly, he had a shuttle to catch.
Eventually he arrived on the other side of the hangar, where a speedbird shuttle was waiting for him.
As he entered the shuttle he spotted the pilot that was doing last minute checks on the harnesses, until he noticed Kendis enter whereupon he saluted him."Commodore"
Kendis responded with a salute of his own "At ease" at which point the pilot returned to his work.
As the pilot did his work an idea came to Kendis. "Do you have a spare seat in the cockpit?" Kendis asked.
The pilot turned around "Yes" he answered, seeming a bit confused.
"I'm going to be with you and your co-pilot in the cockpit for the trip, i would like to see Shanxi from something other than a screen on the way there, i'll just sit in the spare seat you have."
The pilot seemed hesitant about his idea but quikly relented.
"Yes sir" the pilot said with a nod.
He and the pilot entered the cockpit.
As Kendis entered he heard the co pilot start to speak "Hey Will i just spoke with Elerig. Apparently he is our escort for this trip, he asked if we wanted to meet him after the landing on our break."
As he stopped talking he started to turn around. Once he set his eyes on Kendis he visibly flinched from the surprise of the Commodore being in the cockpit.
The pilot the other had named Will spoke "The commodore is going to be with us in the cockpit on the way to Shanxi. '' Kendis nodded at the comment. "And tell Elerig yes" The pilot said and took his seat.
Kendis took his seat and started to wait for departure.
After a while of listening to the pilots doing the checks on the shuttles systems. They finally started moving through the busy hangar.
They did not have to move too far as they soon reached one of the massive doors on the side of the hangar.
After they entered it and heard the heavily armored door closing behind them. They found themselves inside one of the launch bays of the manaus.
The pilot started talking to the launch controller. Kendis put on the headsets that were in the back of the cockpit and started to listen in on their conversation.
"C-52A-10-NH confirm all systems ready for launch?" the controller asked
"C-52A-10-NH affirms all systems ready for launch" the pilot answered.
"Confirmed, starting launching procedure. Activating magnetic locks" Kendis heard the controller say, after which he felt a light jolt as the shuttle connected to the magnetic locks below it's belly.
The pilot looked at his computer for a moment "lock confirmed"
"Beginning depressurization" the controller announced.
They waited as the air outside the shuttle started to be sucked into storage tanks.
Kendis could not see the air but knew it was working, as he saw a few droplets and some dust being sucked away to an unknown fate from the shuttle's windows that had gathered there during the shuttle's time in the hangar.
"Depressurization complete, opening bay doors" the operator informed.
Kendis looked forward and watched as the doors opened. Outside there was nothing but the darkness of space.
"Launch commencing in 10, 9, 8,"
Kendis took a small breath as even though he had been in the navy for a long time already he had never gotten used to these.
"3, 2, 1, launch"
In the blink of an eye the shuttle went from being still to moving forward at tremendous speeds, as the electromagnetic catapult that they were connected to launched them into space at great speeds.
Kendis could feel the G-force of the launch press him into his seat.
And as suddenly it came it disappeared as they left the Manaus and entered space.
At first as he looked around he could only see space until the shuttle made a turn back towards the direction where they came from.
As they started the turn, Shanxi finally emerged into view.
It was always a humbling experience to face the true size of planets with your own eyes. Their majesty felt real, far more than through a screen. At least that's how Kendis saw it.
They continued towards it. At one point they went past the Manaus, at least that's what Kendis believed that it was, due to their distance and speed all he saw was a small dot in the distance. Their escort joined them at this point for the journey though Kendis didn't spot it as it was following behind them.
"Hainan station control this is military vessel C-52A-10-NH approaching shanxi, requesting atmospheric entry clearance and path" he heard the pilot say
After a short time he heard a response "C-52A-10-NH this is Hainan station, atmospheric entry approved, sending you the path for your approach now"
The pilot looked at his computer and pressed a few buttons "Thank you Hainan station, requesting information on weather in Nanxiang air space"
"C-52A-10-NH request confirmed, sending forecast data now"
"Thank you Hainan Station, C-52A-10-NH out"
The pilot looked over the information after which he spoke to the co-pilot
"It's a bit cloudy with a low chance of rain, should not be a problem"
While the pilots talked Kendis was looking at Shanxi and examining what he could see.
And what he could see was not much as almost his whole view was dominated by a huge desert, it looked the same in most places except for the few distinct mountain ranges.
But as they continued towards the north pole the terrain slowly started to change colours and he started to see a few small lakes .
They finally reached their destination of the north pole, he could finally see green and even some decently sized lakes.
"Sir, we're beginning to enter the atmosphere soon" the pilot interrupted his look at shanxi.
He nodded towards the pilot.
The shuttle continued to descend until Kendis could finally start to feel the shuttle start to shake as they entered Shanxis atmosphere.
As they entered further he watched as the colorful plasma formed and created a light show on the other side of the glass. It truly was beautiful, one of the many things that had made him interested in space travel as a child.
"Never gets old" he muttered to himself as he watched the plasma dance its beautiful dance of colours outside the cockpit.
The reentry lasted for some time during which Kedis looked at the plasma, and pondered on his past and future.
Eventually the plasma stopped and they started flying towards Nanxiang.
As they continued, eventually a lake came into view and on the other side on its shore they could start to see Nanxiang.
They started to approach it flying over the lake, Kendis spotted a few ships in the lake.
They eventually came close enough to see more of the city in detail.
It seemed like a nice city, small by earth standards but then again almost everywhere was small compared to Earth's standards.
After a bit of circling around the area they landed at the spaceport on the outskirt of the city.
As the pilots started shutting down the shuttles systems Kendis thanked the pilots for the flight, and got up from his seat to leave the cockpit.
As he stepped out he looked around the surrounding landing area. He could see some hyperions parked close to his landing area. The local government most likely shared the spaceport with the military. Someone higher up most likely didn't want to spend the budget money by building a separate base when you could share the civilian spaceport of the colony.
Another problem to his list of things he would have to look into in the future.
While looking around Kendis noticed a car surrounded by military vehicles driving towards this location.
As they continued to get closer he recognized the markings of the army on the vehicles. His security detail most likely, Kendis thought.
They eventually arrived and stopped close to the shuttle.
As he started to walk towards the civilian style vehicle in the middle of the small convoy. One of its doors opened, and from the car emerged a man dressed in army attire.
On his uniform Kedis spotted the insignia of a major General. Evidently he was the commanding officer of the ground forces in shanxi.
"Greetings and what a lovely day we have today" The man said while looking at the almost clear blue sky with a smile on his face.
"It indeed is a lovely day general, I have not had the pleasure of visiting a planet for some time. Not that much pleasant weather at ceres." Kendis said with a small laugh at his own joke.
The general seemed to find his joke amusing as well as he laughed a little.
He looked back at Kendis and offered a hand for a handshake.
Kendis took it and they shook each other's hands.
"Major general Blake Williams" The general introduced himself.
"Commodore Kendis Moran" Kendis did the same "It is a pleasure to meet you general Williams"
"As it is for me, commodore Moran. It would seem we will be working together for some time"
They continued talking for some time until an army officer came and spoke into the general's ear.
Kendis could faintly hear what he said. "Sir the meeting should be starting soon, we should leave so we aren't late"
General Williams looked mildly annoyed at this interruption. The general nodded at the officer at which point the officer returned to his vehicle
General Williams turned his attention back towards Kendis. "But enough of pleasant chats commodore, why don't we get into the car to discuss the coming meeting, after all there is much to be done."
United nations intelligence agency records department
Accessing: United nations Colonial records
File: 2917 (the United nations rules on planetary colonization)
UN policy on colonization is often put into three different types that differ from each other. These types are.
Sponsored: Sponsored colonies are colonies sponsored by member nations of the UN. Examples of sponsored colonies are (New Hunan, Titan, Aranyani).
Government: Colonies directly founded or heavily supported by the central UN government. Government colonies are often strategically important positions, planets chosen to act as major traffic hubs, or planets generally of some importance to the central government. Examples are (Arcturus, Eden prime, New America).
Public: Colonies created by private individuals or groups with the approval from the colonial ministry. Most public colonies were started by non-profit initiatives or Movements. Examples are (Terra Nova, Aurai)
Other information on colonial policy:
Corporations are forbidden from founding their own colonies, if a corporation operated world is starting to develop into a colony as viewed by UN colonial ministry guidelines. It shall be put under review and if found fulfilling enough of the criteria it shall be recognised as an official colony, a new local government is to be established (And monitored by UNIA for any attempted corporate control of the colony for an undisclosed amount of time).
For more information on the corporate ban on colonization read file:52834 (Nestle-Orion scandal and its impacts)
A colony's legal status changes from a colony to a member nation of the UN when the population has reached 1,250,000 as that is the set amount of people needed for a representative in the general assembly.
Colonies in general assembly elections do not vote for the representative of their own colony as they do not qualify for one. All colonies instead vote for the colonial representatives that together represent all of the colonies in the general assembly, currently there are 39 Colonial representatives in the general assembly.
It is the colonial ministry's job to make sure colonization efforts are organized, regulated and properly supported by government resources. The ministry has the authority to grant permits on colonization efforts of planets to member nations, private individuals or groups. Any colonisation efforts without ministry approval are considered highly illegal.
United nations intelligence agency records department
Accessing: United nations Political records
File: 2917 (the United nations General assembly and political groups)
The UN's population at the time of writing is 22,529,159,000 people. This number has made the General assembly a very unique representative body in human history. Due to its need to represent the whole of the UN population and to make sure that the Representative/Population ratio stays low enough for proper representation and that the smaller nations get proper representation in it. This has made the General assembly a truly massive legislative assembly. The biggest in human history, it contains 18 023 MGA's (members of the general assembly). One MGA generally represents 1,250,000 people.
In elections people vote for the local parties of their member nations parliament not for the Groups in the General assembly. Upon being voted in, The Party that's MGA was elected joins a group in the General assembly or becomes one of the independents. The groups usually contain parties of similar ideologies or ideals. It is common that the MGA's vote with their groups chosen position on an issue, but it is not uncommon to see a small number of MGA's (or in rare cases large groups) vote against their own groups Chosen Position due to their own parties or personal beliefs. If the group can not come to a decision internally about something being voted on in the general assembly the groups MGA's are given a free hand on how to vote.
Political groups are the backbone of how the general assembly works. There are currently 27 Groups in the assembly, with the largest group containing 4 884 MGA's (27,1%). Due to their sizes many in the public consider the groups to have become their own "smaller" assemblies inside the general assembly, and that view is not completely unfounded.
For the general assembly itself the groups send delegations, whose members are chosen by a vote of their groups. The delegations represent the group and their main jobs are to (Represent the group's interest, make speeches and comments in the groups name, announcing the group's position on subjects) the delegates have no actual power they act more as the groups face to the general assembly and the public.
The general assembly hall has 12,674 seats as there is not enough space for every MGA, Most MGA's choose to attend digitally. (There are ongoing talks on expanding the general assembly hall in the future or even the possibility of building a new building to house it.)
There is time reserved for individual MGA's to make speeches in front of the general assembly on subjects being debated upon (representing themselves not their group), but this is limited due to the amount of MGA's being so large there is simply not enough time for every MGA to make a speech, who of the MGA's is to make a speech is chosen randomly, but in special cases the speaker of the general assembly can give priority to chosen MGA's on certain subjects. Examples of this are when debate concerns a MGA's home nation or if he is in some way personally involved in the subject of the debate, these are some but not all of the reasons for this privilege to be granted.
The general assembly elections happen every 5 years, every 20 years the general assembly numbers are changed to represent the new population changes.
Current location of General assembly: Sol system, Earth, Geneva
This document does not contain the powers the general assembly has, for this information read file: 91649 (Powers of the General assembly and general-secretary).
A/N
Writing how a fictional parliament works is a real pain in the ass. Fuck you General assembly i had to do math and actual research because of you! Its flawed as fuck but that is what makes it more real.
If you guys want me to experience more pain and frustration, I could do a part about the major political groups of the general assembly in the future, I'll probably do a part about them anyway if they become relevant to the story. And let's not even mention file 91649.
About the frequency of chapters. I am a very slow writer.
If you have any questions about the story i would be happy to answer them.
And lastly.
Sol system = Contains over 50% (not this percentage) of MGA's in the general assembly
UN = Federal parliamentary republic
General-secretary = Prime minister
United nations intelligence agency = UNIA