GATE: the clash of the titans

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

14. Chapter 14:Falmart& Beginning of the War

Chapter 14 : Falmartian & Beginning of the War (Filler)

In the previous chapters I said the Holy Dawinian Empire technology level before the Gate Event was around 1700s but that's Not Entirely True, 1700s was the Imperial Government technology level not the common true was the Falmartian Orthodox Church already had access to many early WW1 techs by stealing other worlds technologies for many years while the rest of the Holy Empire and its vassals sates were living with 1400s level of technology.

Even after the modernization begin in 52019 I.C, due to the Church's Ideology of Old Believe, the Holy Dawinian Empire as a state was quite odd. In many areas it clings to the past, particularly in terms of farming, peasant life and so on. In others, such as the military, it was ultra-modern.

It was thus a nation of contrasts. The vast majority of the population lived at a level that has not changed a great deal in millennia, in big cottages and villas, with no electricity or running water and no advanced technology. However, they may use high technology in their work, either on the land or in factories or for the government. And the military has the finest high technology the Holy Empire can provide. Public buildings are also built with high technology, so that many cities have a centre consisting of modern buildings in the midst of a sea of cottages, with advanced magic trains running next to roads of dirt and mud.

All architecture in the Holy Darwinian Empire remains locked in the old styles approved by the Falmartian Orthodox Church. Modern materials are discretely used only for strength, and only for the glory of The Thirteen Gods, by producing cathedrals larger and taller than traditional materials would allow. The only high-technology buildings in the Holy Darwinian Empire are found in the cathedral of the Falmartian Orthodox Church that exist in all towns and cities. Even so, no buildings of any kind are allowed to be higher than the roof of the local cathedral(s), as they do not wish to overtop the works of The Thirteen Gods with the works of man.

Entertainments in the Holy Dawinian Empire are also, in general, on a local level. Drinking is always popular, as are wrestling, dancing bears, tobacco, singing, dancing, theatres, board games and so on, all of an appropriate level of technology. Public readings, usually of the Testaments or similar approved texts are also widespread. Some of these last for hours or days and are performed as signs of devotion.

Sporting events are very popular in the Holy Dawinian Empire, and most towns and cities have their own teams who play the Falmart's versions of football, athletics, hurley and so on. Live large-scale chess games, with people playing the parts of the chess pieces in appropriate costumes as a form of 'performance game', are also quite popular. However, no sports or games are played on a Darwinday.

The need for industrialisation in the Holy Dawinian Empire after the Falmart-Terran First Contact in 52019 I.C led to elements of the agricultural and industrial revolutions taking place on Earth being adopted in, combined with the lack of Serfdom in the Holy Dawinian Empire, provided the mobility of labour and freed up people from the land to go and work in the new industries that were established, as well as to build the network of railway/telegraph highways that now link the various regions of the Holy Dawinian Empire.

The Holy Dawinian Empire differs greatly from Earth in using an 20 feet railway gauge dramatically larger than those used in any other nation on Earth. Thus their rail network is almost completely incompatible with that of the Earth's nations, but its vast trains, mostly running on concrete rails, allow long journeys across the vastness of Falmart's Northern Supercontinent without refuelling.

Needless to say, despite the best efforts of the Orthodox Church there was an illegal creep of technology from those areas where it was permitted (those to do with the government and preservation of the Holy Dawinian Empire) to those where it is not (the normal lives of the people), often associated with the smuggling of technology into the Holy Empire from Earth. And it is very much an open secret that the rulers of the Holy Empire and the Orthodox Church lived in splendour with all of the high technology they wish.

There are a number of factions among the Imperial government of the Holy Dawinian Empire.

First, there are differences over the issue of technology. Some, the minority Idealists, wish to eliminate all advanced technology from the Holy Dawinian Empire; even they disagree over precisely where the elimination of technology should stop, although most consider at a Bronze Age level to be acceptable.

The majority are Pragmatists, willing to accept enough technology to protect the Empire and no more. The minority Progressives wish to remove all limitations on technology and have the Empire advance as much as the other worlds in the universe. They have gained significant support for their agenda since the begining of the Great Falmart-Terran War, though they still disagree over the ideal distribution of technology.

In addition to this there are splits over how the Holy Dawinian Empire should interact with other parallel worlds, though this is more of a spectrum of opinion. This varies from complete isolation from its corrupting and damaging influences to those who wish to evangelise Falmartian Orthodoxy to the other worlds at all costs. Since the begining of the Great Falmart-Terran War the have gained the upper hand over the Isolationists who thought to be coward.

The Imperial government contains individuals from all combinations of these opinions, though Pragmatic Evangelists currently have the upper hand in government, having taken over from the Pragmatic Isolationists at the begin of the Great Terran-Falmart War.

POLITICS

To someone from 21st century Earth, the politics of Falmart is rather strange. It is a combination of the old and the different.

In the Holy Darwinian Empire, democratic tendencies did grow during the nineteenth millennium, although less so than in the real world British Empire in 18th century, being limited partly because of the way society, the monarchy and the government evolved during that time, and partly because of the introduction of a Union-style Table of Ranks which allowed anyone the opportunity to rise up into the nobility in service to the Imperial government.

However, the course of the 12th Imperial Civil War and the years after it, when extremist political parties flourished, shifted public faith away from the Imperial Senate, who were seen as largely responsible for what had happened during and after the War, and more towards the monarch. Senate is thus rather powerlessness, and the Emperor is more of an absolutist. Most authority is vested in Emperor Molt Sol Augustus.

All of the regions of the Holy Empire which are considered 'ready' have what are known as Union governments. Each region of the Empire with such a government is administered by a Crown-appointed Governor-General and a General Council of delegates from the region in question. It has exclusive control of local affairs, including relations with native peoples and the acquisition of land for the Crown, and is responsible for the defence of the region. Each of the regions of the Holy Empire send representatives to the Imperial Sentate in Sadera. As such the Empire is ruled for the Empire, not for the capital alone.

Originally this was just for areas with a majority of Imperial settlers, but since the 14th Imperial Civil War, Union governments have been implemented in many other areas. Areas which are not yet considered ready for Union government are run by District Officers, who have a staff of trained locals and ex-pats, and a larger staff of workers under them.

There are, of course, some mal-contents who want full Home Rule for their part of the Empire, but the vast majority of the populations of the Holy Empire do not want independence from them for their particular region. By the 30th millennium the Union governments give the vast majority of people enough control that they see no need for full independence. They have full and basically equal representation in the government of the Holy Darwinian Empire, and in general see themselves as being much better off as part of the Holy Empire than otherwise.

The world has essentially reached a status quo with which a great many people are satisfied, and there are, at present, no great social problems or upheavals looming on the horizon to disturb that status quo.

The law and government of the Holy Empire is based upon the system of Collective Responsibility. Under this system groups of families are mutually responsible for each others good behaviour and share each others punishments for bad behaviour. Households are organised into groups of ten. Each household sends a representative - who can be male or female - to the monthly meeting of its group, and each such group elects a leader to represent it at the level of government above it. The head of each group is responsible to the level above it for the conduct of all members of their group. This is known as the 'bao jia' (tithing) system.

The bao jia system serves as an extension of the central government. It is the means by which taxation is levied on the populace, and also the means by which welfare and other such things are distributed to the population as they require it. Of course, being run by people the bao jia system is not perfect. As such, there is a large corps of Inspectors, a branch of the Civil Service, who work to enforce the proper running of the system.

Although Darwinian does effectively have the full franchise, membership of the Imperial Senate remains, in practise if not in law, limited to the upper levels of society, and in particular to members of the progressive School of Practical Learning (SPL). As such the nobility, the SPL and the Civil Service essentially run the country, with one of the former powers in the Holy Empire, the Imperial Household Department, having been much reduced over the years.

Darwinian Empire is also quite socially stratified. However, the exams for civil service entry are open to anyone, and schooling is universal, so anyone can rise up the ranks from humble beginnings, even into the nobility, the High Council, or the SPL. The Empire's attitude to colonisation and the other worlds has varied somewhat with time; it has a definite tendency towards isolationism, but as the Golden Emperor showed it is wise to look outwards, this has never been total.

As part of the reforms of the Imperial system that made it one of the three great powers of the world, the Holy Empire criminal law was codified into a set of written laws, greatly restricting the flexibility magistrates could exercise during trials. The accused were granted some rights, some protection from 'unnecessary' torture, and were not allowed to be jailed for long periods while awaiting trial. The Emperor, particularly the later Emperors, did what was necessary to make the courts as appealing as possible, stressing the rule of law over their own moral influence, and working to minimise the loss of face and fear involved in making an appearance in court.

There are five main Imperial political parties:

The Old Nobility; the party of landowners, they tend to be conservative; they blur with the New Nobility. They favour industry, but also government keeping it hands off industry, allowing it to sink or swim on its own. As such things like trade unionism should be banned and the welfare state used to keep people working, via institutions such as the workhouse. Government should focus on a strong foreign policy, internal order, and allowing the economy to work as efficiently as possible via minimal interference.

The New Nobility; those elevated from the Table of Ranks; they have similar views to the Old Nobility, but tend to be more progressive than them; they blur with the Old Nobility. This party is made up of what might, in the real world, be called social democrats. They believe that there should be a welfare state to protect people, and other organisations such a trade unions to protect workers rights, but also that people should be able to work to improve themselves within that framework. So while the government should have some influence in the economy it should also still be free to be used by people to improve themselves. Toleration and social improvement are important for them and they wish to make society more egalitarian, and eliminate poverty.

The Industrial Progress Party; industrialists, whose policies tend to put money and industry over people. This party values industry and commerce over all else, believing that to be the basis for a healthy nation. As such they favour assisting and subsidising industry where they can, but interfering only where necessary. As such vigorously pushing the products of Imperial industry into new markets is very important to them, and vigorous foreign policy generally. They believe in a minimal welfare state, and as much trade unionism as is necessary to keep the workers happy.

The Peasant's Party; organised trade unionism, who want the best for Imperial's workers. This is a party that might also be called socialists in the real world. They do share some views with the New Nobility. That is, they believe in the welfare state, trade unions and so on, but they tend to view the economy as something the government should control via central planning for the good of all, redistributing wealth and jobs as required for the good of the nation as a whole. Toleration and social improvement, while important, are not as important as improving the lot of as many people as possible.

The Military and Veterans; for a strong Empire and a strong military. They tend to be conservative, and sometimes even reactionary. This is a very authoritarian party. They also favour the removal of the welfare state, allowing people to handle such arrangements for themselves, outlawing trade unions, and allowing industry and so on to run itself with as little government interference as possible. They see nothing to be gained by tolerance, and social improvement as something that will 'trickle down' from the top if the system is allowed to run itself.

Many of the members of the New Nobility and Industrial Progress parties have strong links to the Imperial Academy of Magic, the organisation which co-ordinates many of Darwinian's official magical research programmes.

The Old Nobility, Peasant and Military and Veterans parties all have quite strong ties to various elements within the Royal Society of Sadera, under the auspices of which much of Imperial's scientific research is carried out.

LEGAL SYSTEM

The overall premise of the Holy Empire, Darwinian-Legalist system is that the law should be a self-sustaining 'machine' independent of the people who implement, enforce and live under it. Essentially the idea to turn the nation into a fount [computer] with the people as its replaceable components and the system, a legal machine, running on.

As such, the Imperial legal system is officially known as the System of Automatic Law, although its detractors refer to it as the System of Mindless Law. Technically it is often referred to as 'Algorithmic Law' because of its reliance on a strict set of rules.

As part of its overall premise, a major part of the legal system of Darwinian is based on the idea that all citizens should be policemen for all of the rest, in addition to their other employment and civil duties. Being a nosey neighbour is required. People are meant to be busybodies. They are meant to keep an eye on what their neighbours are doing, as their neighbours should be keeping an eye on them. As part of this citizens are required to monitor the government itself as well as companies and other organisations and also report them should they deem it necessary.

Everyone is taught the Law as part of their education and they are expected to use it against anyone they see breaking it in their everyday life, regardless of who they are and with no social class or other restrictions on who can accuse who.

This education of the entire populace in the law is a difference between Darwinian-Legalism and the Chinese Legalist system, but it is something that is considered necessary to avoid corruption. It has led to the rather odd situation that although the Holy Darwinian Empire is run under a Darwinian-Legalist system, there are very few actual lawyers in the Empire.

The overall intention is that people should be trained to take responsibility for their own lives and the lives of the their community, within the law, rather than that responsibility being imposed from above. The Darwinian-Legalist system was sold to the mass of Imperial subjects as one to better the lot of the poor by taking them out from under the thumb of those who would be their masters. Though as outsiders note this was done by putting them under the thumb of an impersonal legal machine...

To aid in this, much of Darwinian law is codified in the form of flow charts and check lists, enabling people to check the status of an action and its circumstances quickly, simply and easily. In all cases the flow chart determines the flow of events; the checklist how and under what circumstances to go from one event to another. These flow charts and check lists are publically displayed all across the Holy Empire to help people know and apply the law; no citizen of Darwinian should ever be more than a minutes walk from a set of the laws.

Some legal flow charts end at an outcome of 'consult higher authority'. From the bottom level the ordinary citizens are obliged to consult with the local judges or magistrates, who are also responsible for administering the punishments recommended by lower level legal processes. From here their own flow charts - containing more complex actions and decisions - guide their actions and can also end with 'consult higher authority', so that there are progressively higher level officials up to the very top of the government.

To make this at all practical, there is a single unified code of Darwinian law, but one in which different subsets of the law apply depending on who the accused is, making it a system in which there can effectively be different laws for different groups of people. To further assist in its practicality, Darwinian law is as simple as possible so that all people can understand it. Crimes are defined very broadly so that all crimes of a given type definitely fall within the boundaries of the law so as to minimise 'false negatives', where the guilty escape the Law, even though this may lead to some 'false positives', that is, ambiguous actions that can be prosecuted even though they are actually not crimes. As such the Law is not subtle or nuanced, but it is effective. There is no presumption of innocence under Holy Darwinian law.

One unusual feature of Darwinian law is a number of laws arising from the Environmental Reductionism Movement. Some of these enforce frugality, the reduction of waste and the maximisation of the reuse and recycling of things. Others are strict sumptuary laws introduced with the intention of maintaining social cohesion by preventing displays of excessive wealth. As with other laws, these are enforced by people on other people.

However, in addition to this, there are also local laws. These are added (and sometimes repealed) by local people via petitions to the authorities, within the limits of the higher national law. Thus in places (though not everywhere) there are laws at the national, provincial, county and town/village level.

A requirement for these local laws is they have to be publically announced to all citizens and visitors to the area (normally via signs) so that visitors are not ignorant of them.

The foreigners in the Holy Empire are of course also subject to Darwinian Imperial law, though as many of these are diplomats and so on they may well have diplomatic immunity.

People are further encouraged to obey the Law by tax rates in each district being set according to the level of crime in that district. The more crime, the higher the taxes, with more severe crimes leading to higher taxes. Of course, there is a 'baseline' level of tax that even a crime-free district must pay, but again crime-ridden districts can pay considerably more than this.

The Emperor personally makes an annual surprise visit to the most virtuous district, when it is announced. He congratulates the people there, and presents the district with a memorial stele to mark the occasion.

As with the laws of Darwinian, punishments for crimes are undiscriminating and erring towards harshness, with extenuating circumstances not being taken into account.

People can report crime and so on, but only the state can punish it. In all cases the penalty for not reporting a crime is at least as severe as the punishment for committing the crime. This helps encourage people to report all possible crimes. Likewise, those who make deliberate false accusations are treated harshly. Those who make genuine accusations that are later disproved are not punished, though the process of deciding which is which can be an involved one...

No appeals are possible under Imperial law; once a decision is made then it is final.

Punishment is always collective, and is administered to the criminal themselves, their family and their close friends and associates, with the only exceptions to this being if it was one of these people who reported the crime in the first place. Only children are exempt from this collective punishment, normally being fostered to 'good citizens' rather than their criminal parents; it is not unknown for this to result in abuse, however...

The punishments used within the Holy Empire are based on the traditional Darwinian Five Punishments. They vary in severity and type depending on the crime as follows:

Beatings; these are used for 'everyday' crimes and use one state-mandated implement, which varies depending on the crime. The severity of the beating varies, with the number of blows with the given implement increasing with the severity of the crime. The type of beating is specified by the local magistrate, while the beating itself is normally carried out by a local or locals selected by lot by the local magistrate.

Branding on the face (the cheeks or forehead); this is also used for 'everyday' crimes, but for repeat offenders, when beatings within the limit of the law have not stopped the criminal from re-offending. The brand used to mark the offender consists of a character indicating the crime for which it was administered. As with beatings, the type of branding is specified by the local magistrate, while the branding itself is carried out by randomly selected locals.

Fines and/or confiscation of property; this type of punishment is normally administered for monetary or sumptuary crimes, and is carried out by a government official of a level commensurate with the seriousness of the crime.

Time in a local labour camp; this sentence is given for more serious crimes which require the prisoner to be separated from the community for the safety of it or themselves, as well as providing a way for them to make reparation through their labour. This is the punishment for first offenses of sedition. The length of time spent in the camp is dependant on the crime, and is a form of 'community service'. In theory all prisoners in the camp are treated equally, though of course, people being people, this is not always the case. These camps are run by the Holy Order Militant, with the prisoners being part of a penal regiment, and are all constructed along Panopticon principles.

Time in a distant labour camp; this sentence is given for crimes that require the prisoner to be kept more separate from the population as a whole while they make reparations through labour in a form of 'state service'. The crimes for which people are sent to these camps include serious violent or monetary crimes, treason, and persistent seditionists and scofflaws. As for the local camps, the length of time spent in the camp is dependant on the crime, but conditions in these camps are harsher than in the local camps, and casualty rates can be high, so that a long sentence is tantamount to a death sentence. Again, all prisoners are in theory treated equally. Again, these camps are Panopticons run by the military with the prisoners being part of a penal regiment; in this case their penal duties tend to be much harsher than is the case in local labour camps.

The existing of enemies with uncountable numbers of troops implies that the best use must be made of its humanoid resources.

Not wasting or killing those who can work forms part of this, so that Darwinian does not have a death penalty except for the crime of heresy as such and prisoners who in former days might have been executed are instead sent to labour camps, so that useful work can be obtained from them. However, being sentenced to most forms of hard labour is effectively equivalent to a death sentence.

When a crime is committed and punishment administered by the local people, the law requires that they fill out a form and deliver it to the local magistrate to document what has happened and why. This makes everything above board; otherwise what has happened is vigilante justice, which is very much frowned upon. The forms are fairly simple and quick to fill out, in keeping with the Darwinian legal system as a whole, as this increases the chances of people actually using them.

Another element of the simplicity of the Law is that it is very inflexible, although not entirely static. It is possible for the law to change. Local areas may add local laws from time to time, but changes to national law occur when some issue is escalated up through the government and judiciary all the way to the top and even then there is still no resolution. At this point the question will normally be passed to a Consultative Committee who will assess and make a decision on it. This is then handed back down through the levels of government to its origin, and is possibly promulgated to the nation as a whole, depending on exactly what it is.

The same Committee, or sub-groups of it, also write and check the official legal flow charts for errors and omissions, and through them the Law as a whole.

Panopticon Society are still adhered in the Holy Darwinian Empire to some extent. These are an extension of the Darwinian-Legalist government and the idea of collective responsibility that underlies Darwinian law. Everyone is expected to watch everyone else as part of their duty as loyal subjects of the Holy Emperor.

Secret Police known as the Oprichninas [Eyes of the Law] also watch in secret and report those who do not report what they should to the authorities. This encourages the far larger network of ordinary Imperial citizens to do their duty as no-one knows who the members of the Oprichninas really are. When there is perceived to be a need to do so, they can also draft people for duty as Eyes for some specific task; these draftees are known as Oprichnik [Lesser Eyes].

As part of this, since the development of the magic to do so, the Empire is also watched by a very large number of television surveillance bird, which observe all public and many private spaces. Of course, not all, or even most, of these actually work or are watched at any given time, but in keeping with the ideas of the Panopticon philosophy, no-one knows (or at least should know) whether they are being watched at a given moment...

Of course, this constant surveillance only stimulates the birth and membership of secret societies and other underground movements, a tendency only limited by the occasional well-publicised arrests, trials and punishments of all members and associates of such groups for their crimes against the Emperor.

In addition, the Imperial system can be susceptible to corruption, with people conspiring to break the law and get away with it within the large circle of friends and neighbours. However, the larger the conspiracy the more difficult it is to conceal, and in addition to this, discouraging such activity is a large part of the purpose of the Holy Order. As part of this they and the Ministry of Interior monitor televox calls and surveillance birds as well as having spies throughout the land.

Needless to say there is a high degree of censorship in the Holy Empire. All books are government-approved and owned by the state, being loaned out to the people (often over the long term) from libraries. This had led to the growth of an underground book printing and distribution network, which provides texts that include both home-grown ones, and ones written and imported from outside Falmart itself.

People are free to move about within Darwinian Territory with no need for internal passports or other restrictions, though it all costs money, of course; there is a (rather extensive) railway network as well roads and river transport. However, it is expected that if someone moves in or goes travelling then their family, friends and neighbours will talk to them about it and find out any whys of it, reporting anything that seems untoward to the authorities.

Despite the best efforts of the Darwinian-Legalist system, the Holy Darwinian Empire has those who reject its system. In general these people are known as Scofflaws; they are a form of national bugbear and are often used as scapegoats for any problems suffered by the state. Effectively considered to the seditionists, many Scofflaws are effectively bandits or organised criminals who live on the fringes of Darwinian society. Obviously they are hunted down by the government as much as possible, and are normally considered traitors rather than merely disloyal, earning them harsh sentences in labour camps if they are caught and convicted.

ECONOMY

The overall economic system of this world is closer to what, in the real world, would be called Mercantilism than real-world Capitalism.

Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes monarchy, aristocracy, clericalism, militarism, imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal.

The policy aims to reduce a possible current account deficit or reach a current account surplus, and it includes measures aimed at accumulating monetary reserves by a positive balance of trade, especially of finished goods. Historically, such policies frequently led to war and motivated colonial expansion.

However, unlike pure Mercantilism, reliance on bullion alone has been replaced by reliance on all things of value to the Holy Empire, including intangible things such as the intellect of its people, leading to the evolution of a system known as commodityism (or chattelism to its detractors).

Because communism or similar systems have not been used to run any of the nations of the world, but there has still been a great deal of competition between the Great Houses, the world, taken as a whole, is richer than the Earth.

The Holy Empire maintain a good deal of control over those areas which it considers essential to the running of the Empire. This includes the areas of media, transport, and infrastructure generally. It also fund most research which takes place, via the universities. However, outside of these areas there is also a thriving world of commerce and magitek development, generally only within a given area, but still with a great deal of room for competition, capitalistic behaviour and so on. And plenty of opportunity for companies to sell to the government, obtain government contracts and so on. It is not, however, unknown for particularly successful businesses which come to be seen as essential to the Holy Empire, such as the magic telephone business, to be nationalised by the Imperial government.

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS

Some significant political movements existed in Falmart are:

PHYSIOCRACY

Physiocracy is an economic theory that considers that the wealth of nations is derived solely from agriculture. It originated in the Union in the eighth millennium and was perhaps the first well developed theory of economics.

The Physiocrats dislike cities for their artificiality and instead praise more 'natural' styles of living, celebrating farmers in particular. They see the true wealth of a nation as being determined by the surplus of agricultural production over and above that needed support agriculture itself.

Other forms of economic activity, such as industry and manufacturing, are viewed as taking this surplus agricultural production and transforming it into new products. While these manufacturers and other non agricultural workers may be useful, they are seen as 'sterile' in that their income derives ultimately not from their own work, but from the surplus production of the agricultural sector.

Physiocracy is strongly opposed to mercantilism (which emphasised the trade of goods between countries), as it pictures the peasant society as the economic foundation of a nations wealth.

BIPODISM

A modification of the Physiocratic system that sees that, as society evolves (advances), industry inevitably becomes as important as agriculture in underpinning society.

It has a flag that is vertically divided, with half gold (for agriculture) and half black (for the coal that powers industry).

UTILITARIAN ECONOMIC RATIONALISM (UER)

Its basic idea is that governments work best when their people are as happy as possible. Thus safety first should be their watchword. They should keep and develop what they have, and not expand until they can, with certainty. They should let go of poor investments, but ruthlessly grab certain opportunities when they arise, for the good of the people and the state.

Emotion and sentiment should not be allowed to stop this from happening. The state should be strong, not just to take and hold things, but also to let them go when it is necessary. And it must be flexible and admit error, as the happiness of the state as a whole, including its people, is the essential thing.

Spies and secret police are an intrinsic part of Yngveson's system - or rumours of them, which have the same sort of effect on people's behaviour. Propaganda to shape the opinions of the population towards 'ideal' ends is also considered very important, leading inevitably to a need for the country to be isolated from the 'bad' ideas of the rest of the world. However, the provision of health care, including genetic health care (and eugenics), is also considered an essential.

UER has as its vision a society of the maximum good for the maximum number, where people and things not required are let go without regret. This implies either a totally isolated state, or a world state under a UER regime, as anything else will have other nations taking things that the people of the nation require, or influencing its population, thus leading to conflict.

The precise form which the government of this ultimate Rationalist state will take remains a matter for discussion, as long as it is one that maximises the happiness of the populace.

Although most people have dismissed the ideas of UER as unworkable, even treasonable, a number of UER regimes have come to power over time, including one in the Federation.

However, none of them have lasted long, as [like Communism in the real world] although is has had some successes, UER requires people who are not human, and who can just let go of things without emotion.

There are rumours that research is being carried out somewhere in the world to modify people's minds to turn them in proper Rationalists, though without any success so far.

Most UER regimes tend to be Progressive rather than Traditionalist, although their progressiveness may not be popular with their people or the rest of the world.

The symbol of UER is a white flag representing the pure light of Rationalism.

RATIONALISM

An idealistic offshoot of UER, a 'universal' version rather than a utilitarian one. To this school of thought, 'our people' is all of sentient beings, so all the world should be united under the Rationalist banner, so that everyone can be helped.

UNIVERSALISM

An offshoot of UER that takes an even wider view than Rationalism, considering all life to be of 'our kind', and thus the world as a whole should be helped and protected. Although initially rejected by most thinkers, in later decades this philosophy has formed the basis for many of the eco-friendly policies found around the world.

TRIBALISM

A variant of UER that takes a narrow view, that 'our people' is only ones immediate family, and proposes a return to the 'natural' tribal society of cave-man times. This movement has never really become popular.

NATURALISM

A socialist anti-cities movement, which became known as the Naturalists, evolved out of the Union Physiocratic system of economics. Naturalists think that the nations of the world should adjust. That they should spread the factories and so on of the cities across all of the villages of the nation. They realise that industry is essential for the modern world, but insist that it is secondary to agriculture.

This movement has a golden flag, symbolising grain and agriculture

NATURISM

Opposed to what they see as un-natural changes to society arising from UER, eugenics, Selección Natural Social and technological advancement, the various Naturist movements wish to return the world to its proper 'natural' state and society, though precisely what is meant by that varies from group to group. Some of them are religiously-based, others are entirely secular; many include Luddite elements.

SOPHOCRACY

A form of meritocracy which was first formalised by the Former Otto Empire political philosopher Enver Sevket in 21874, it is the system of government used in the Otto Empire and also in a number of other states around the world. Precisely how 'merit' is determined varies a great deal between Sophocracies, leading to great differences between them. Many Sophocracies are also monarchies, but the position and power of the monarch varies from state to state, with them being powerless figureheads in some places, and possessing significant political power in others. Sophocracy as practised in the Former Otto Empire is very much an interpretation of the original writings of Enver Sevket. Likewise, other Sophocratic governments around the world are also based on interpretation of his words, but all the interpretations differ, some to the point of different Sophocratic governments being implacable enemies of one another for purely ideological reasons.

ENVIRONMENTAL REDUCTIONISM MOVEMENT

Environmental Reductionism is a movement that was founded by the Immanity philosopher Santiago Chocano, the son of an exiled duke who had fled to Europania after the overthrow of the Haku Kingdom, Ameryka, Rationalist regime in 9107. Influenced by the ideas both of UER and the Holy Order's Doomsday Vault, Environmental Reductionism is a political and ecological philosophy that advocates the culling of the sentient population of Falmart back to a level that the world can sustain in the long term.

Because their view of the solution to the problems besetting Falmart is very far from the mainstream of public opinion,
Environmental Reductionism is very much a fringe movement in most areas, viewed as either mad, dangerous, or both. Despite this, individuals and groups who follow its philosophy are widespread around the world. Many governments also agree with some of their ideas, in particular that reducing the population in the long term is a good idea. However, there are a great many issues arising from attempting to implement any such policy, as well as a great unwillingness among governments to attempt it unilaterally.

They are popularly known as the 'Reapers', or sometimes as 'Chocanistas', after their founder.

The Environmental Reductionism movement as a whole has a number of factions within it, members of which disagree with each other at least as much as they do with mainstream political views. This heavily limits their effectiveness as a movement. First, they are divided over how rapidly the population should be reduced. Some, who tend to be the most mainstream of the Environmental Reductionism, advocate a slow reduction in population through education and the consent of the people of the world. Others see the problem of overpopulation as too urgent for such a gradual change, and instead advocate the culling of humanity quickly and immediately, by force if necessary. Other divisions exist over the level to which the sentient population should be reduced.

Different groups propose reducing the population to somewhere in the range from one milliard [billion] down to as low as ten million. The last major source of division in the Reductionism movement is over who to cull. Some believe that culling the population at random is the best way to proceed, as this will be best, overall, for the human species as the strongest or luckiest will survive. Others take a racial (or more accurately racist) view in which (some members of) one race should be allowed to survive at the expense of the others, while others still take a view based on social class, intelligence or some other criteria; all of these are generally considered to be a more primitive and more fringe viewpoint.

It is rumoured that one or more Environmental Reductionism groups may be planning to unilaterally reduce the population of Falmart by some means, probably an engineered disease or diseases.

Because of this many Reductionism groups are kept under observation by the Holy Order and the police forces of the Holy Empire. Certainly some groups have published guides on how to survive a sudden collapse in the human population. In most countries these guides are banned, but underground copies continue to circulate. Some have even gone so far as to set up caches in certain locations to allow humanoid civilisation to continue should a collapse of population occur, although none of these groups have been officially linked to any intended acts.

NATURAL PRESERVERS MOVEMENT

An even more extreme offshoot of Reductionism, the Preservers propose not just a reduction in the numbers of humanoid, but its complete extinction as the best thing for the future of life on Falmart in general, and the only way to preserve it in the long term.

Preservers Movement grew in Terra Australis in the mid-19600s, during the chaos following the Second Pogrom War, and is believed to have originated among Reduccionistas who worked on the Pogrom Plague. Some Preservadors advocate rendering humanoid extinct by persuasion, but others believe it can only be done by violence. [ Preservers Movement are not unlike the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement of the real world, although some pay less attention to the 'voluntary' part.]

Even more of a fringe group than The Reductionism, there are believed to be only a very few Preservers around the world. However, because of their beliefs they tend to be kept under even closer observation by the authorities than the Reductionism. Again because of their beliefs, The Preservers have become known as the 'dark brother' of the WCBC (World Center for Bioweapons Control). Despite their beliefs, the Preservers are not nihilists, but instead want to eliminate humanoid without harming the rest of planet Falmart.

Preservers Movement do not have an official symbol, but some groups have used an unofficial one consisting of an idyllic natural scene in a circle on a black field; the exact scene used varies depending on the group.

THE PANOPTICON MOVEMENT

A political philosophy based on the assumption that the social order is best served and preserved by the observation of everyone, all the time, or at least the possibility that anyone could be observed at any time. It grew out of the work of Duke Jeremy Bentham in the 9780s, and is an ancestor to UER, although it takes a different view to it. Many nations adopted Panopticon-based systems in the tenth millennium, and although these did have many successes they also led to the growth of the Nullopticon movement and the Societal Wars as a result of which most of them were dismantled.

Most of the thinkers involved in the Panopticon Movement have had a vision of a final ordered, lawful society created not through the expectation or hope of people acting rightly, but because they are constantly observed and will be punished if they deviate from the law. Some optimistic thinkers have speculated that in the far future, as people and society have had this idea become deeply rooted in them, actual surveillance might be phased out, leaving only a 'policeman in every head'. Others, more cynical, believe that this will never happen as long as people remain living beings.

As part of this eventual aim of putting a 'policeman into every head', some philosophers of the Panopticon Movement have investigated the creation of artificial Panopticon languages, the very structure of which prohibits lying or evasion. Others have proposed the surgical or genetic modification of the human brain to the same end. So far, although some research into these possibilities has been conducted, neither idea is anything more than a hope for the future.

Because of the large-scale surveillance that formed part of the Panopticon Society, obfuscational [encryption] systems of many different kinds are used around the world to maintain the privacy of the people of many different nations, in addition to the privacy laws most civilised nations possess. These range from the encoding of televox conversations, to systems for obfuscational written text, to the use of secret or constructed languages and alphabets. While some of this originates within the Nullopticon movement, much of it arises from everyday average people, and its use spreads far and wide beyond its creators.

THE NULLOPTICON MOVEMENT

The Nullopticon movement (un-seeing as opposed to all-seeing) - also known as Nullists - grew up as a reaction to people against the use of Panopticon-based surveillance, and covers a broad range of groups and responses to it. As such it is not a unified front or set of beliefs, but includes:

The use of slang languages and cants [the jargon of a group intended to exclude or mislead people outside the group] such as Cockney rhyming slang, Polari and any number of new or revived cants. An increased interest in artificial and constructed languages, which very much overlaps with the use of slang languages and cants. An allied interest in extinct, rare, obscure and difficult languages from the far corners of the World. Code Clubs, as interest in cryptography increases.

In the present day these make as much use as possible of complex mathematics and founts. The growth of secret societies and what become known as Free Speech Clubs. Public Speaking Clubs. Exhibitionists.

The Nullopticon movement is made up of a large number of highly diverse groups. As such it does not have a single agreed upon symbol. The most commonly used symbol for it is a flag made up of a random array of black and white squares, representing nothing, or white noise, and so the movements wish to avoid surveillance and so on.

Originally made as a patchwork, the number of squares has changed over time, as technological advances have allowed more complex flags to be produced, but many groups retain older flags with fewer, larger squares.

Note that there are also many other nullopticon flags and symbols, including designs mimicking those of punched cards or paper tape, camouflage patterns, 'see no evil' designs, and arrays of random words or characters, some of them from fictional or constructed alphabets.

THE VRIJDENKERIJ (FREETHINKER) MOVEMENT.

Originating in the Neverlands Kingdom, the Vrijdenkerij movement is an atheistic one, which wishes to eliminate religion from public, and in particular political life. Some Vrijdenker nations state that one must renounce all religion and all ties to religion before being part of government. Others simply ban all public religious displays, and discourage the use of religion as a basis for government policy. Some (but not all) Vrijdenkerij nations have evolved into amoral ultra-capitalist societies, while others have evolved atheist moralities, and some have later become religious again. Others practise separation of church and state with varying degrees of strictness. [Even the most atheistic Vrijdenker state does not suffer as much as states did under communism in the real world, as they are normally still staunch capitalists, but even so, they are hardly perfect.]

SCIENCE IN GENERAL

Scientific research and development has occurred over time similar to in the nations of Earth. However, largely influenced by the Union Physiocrats, there has been more focus on and patronage of agriculture-centred research rather than other areas of science; this has also been driven by governments focussing on biological research in the face of advancing biological warfare capabilities, and also because it is relatively cheap compared to other branches of science.

As such, the biological sciences, agronomy and so on are more advanced than on Earth, while engineering and the physical sciences are generally less advanced. Derived from this there are more advanced plant breeding techniques, genetics, chemical fertilisers and so on, as well as earlier versions of Chaos Theory, here known as Weather Mathematics, and the Gaia Hypothesis, here known as Bioteleology.

In the past botanical expeditions, gardens and research have been very significant enterprises in the Holy Empire and other nations.

Because of the more advanced biological sciences in this world, many governments, particularly the Empire, have become aware of the importance of an eco-friendly approach to sustainability, and instituted policies to further this end. As a result the environment of this world is generally in a better condition than that of the Earth

Because of the high population and high degree of urbanisation in this world, there is widespread use of vertical farms within cities [that is, farms built into skyscrapers] to provide food and allow crops to be protected from the effects of increasingly violent weather.

Another side effect of the more advanced biological sciences in this world has been the elimination of any rational basis for racism from the Imperial-influenced world. However, people being people, irrational prejudices still linger.

Computing technology in Falmart has taken a very different route to that on Earth. Although mechanical computing [Babbage Engines] was proposed in 41842, it was the discovery of the means to create fluidic switches and thus fluidic calculating machines that sparked the creation of the first computers using fluidic technology in 48870, the first of them known as Arithmetical Fountains [equivalent to Babbage's Difference Engine], with Analytical Fountains [equivalent to Babbage's Analytical Engine] being developed later.

Although some use of mechanical computers was made, particularly by the Elves (who remain world leaders in that field), fluidic computers became the standard calculating device in the world outside of that country. With non-fluidic peripherals, such as electrical printers and telegraph devices they gained great utility, to the point that even when the electronic computer was invented in 51959 it was never widely adopted.

Because the first computers developed from the fluidic technology of the Arithmetical Fountains and their descendants, in this world all computers regardless of their technology are known as Fountains, or sometimes simply Founts. This latter term is also derived from their being perceived as 'Founts' of knowledge or wisdom.

A spin-off of Arithmetical and Analytical Fountains is the Synthesising Fountain. First developed in Rondel city in 49893, they do not use water as its operating fluid, but instead any of a variety of chemicals. Rather than producing a numerical output, they automatically synthesise a chemical output, its operations combining control of the sequence of chemical reactions with the chemical reactions themselves in one integrated machine.

The Synthesising Fountain is a successful and widely used instrument, with later versions of the incorporating self-cleaning sequences, and many of them coming to be made of crystal or gold, or gold-plated, to avoid reactions between the chemicals used and the Fountain itself.

Another spin-off of Arithmetical Fountain technology is the Zadornov Fountain, invented in 49865. These use the flow of water between different containers to represent the flow of money between different parts of an economy [this is very similar to the MONIAC computer of the real world].

Although they are considered a very crude, high-level means of modelling the economy they have been widely used in a number of countries in the past, and very useful to their governments.

Only the development of DNA computing magitek in 51986, with the massive processing power it allows, has produced a technology that is beginning to render fluidic computing obsolete in many applications. DNA magic computers are large and complex machines descended from the most advanced Synthesising Fountains, each one more like a chemical plant than an Earth's computer, with mixing and separation vats controlled by Synthesising Fountains around a small central reaction chamber.

In many cases the Synthesising Fountains use the solutions of dissolved DNA as their operating fluid. Although DNA computers require human involvement in the programming and interpretation stages of their work, they are nonetheless amazingly powerful processors.

Because of these differences in technology there are no personal computers above the level of Analytical Fountains, and no equivalent of the internet. Likewise, there are no electronic pocket calculators. Instead, slide rules and, for those who can afford them, pocket-sized mechanical calculators [not unlike the Curta calculator of the real world] are widely used. One of the best of these calculators is the Rondel-made Ibhungane [beetle] type.

Another major difference between the computers of Falmart and the ones on Earth is that unlike the computers from the Earth, which use a binary system based on 0 and 1, the computers on Falmart use a trinary, three-valued, system based on -1, 0 and +1, that is, base three. These actually have a number of significant advantages over binary computers.

Although computer hardware technology in this world is not as powerful as that of the ones on Earth, this is somewhat compensated for by the fact that it has existed for much longer here. As such, Befehl-Analyse [software engineering] is more developed here than it is in the real world. In particular techniques for making the best use of limited computational resources - in terms of speed and storage space - are very well developed [not unlike the case in the real world where, despite increasingly powerful computer speeds and capabilities, such things are a flourishing art].

Computer technology in this world continues to advance, although differently to how it does to the ones on Earth. Rather than electronic computers, scientists work to expand the capabilities of the existing founts and DNA magic computers, and also to develop computers that use living neurons, engineered bacteria or chemical reactions as either replacements for or to provide additional functionality to computers of this kind.

Some scientists envision a combination of all four types of computer into some form of 'vat brain', with DNA, bacterial, neuronal and chemical computing elements working together to give a machine of truly vast computing power.

The more advanced biological sciences of this world relative to Earth are partly derived from the work of the Falmartian Orthodox monk, Gabor Szekeres, whose genius (comparable to that of Einstein, but in the field of biology rather than physics) outlined the basics of genetics in 11825, Entwicklung [Evolution] and Natürliche Vorwähler [Natural Selection] in 11833 and eugenics in 11840. This more advanced knowledge of biology means that a number of things have been done here which have not been done on Earth.

A side effect of this is that the population of the world now tops ten billion people, much of fed by any number of crops genetically engineered for increased yields and other desirable properties.

A significant influence on medical and biological research has been the 15842 novel 'The New Race And The New World' by Gustave de Lamartine. Inspired by the Theory of Entwicklung [Evolution], this is a tale of the future and evolved 'supermen', the emergence of the new race out of the old under human direction by the power of eugenics, the inevitable extinction of the old race, and also the whole concept of human-directed evolution. [The novel is an analogue of 'Frankenstein'.]

There is widespread use of eugenics, and even selective breeding of humanoid to improve the humanoid species. Precisely how this is done and precisely what is meant by 'improvement' varies from nation to nation, but most nations have at least some form of eugenics programme which attempts to remove people with congenital defects from the gene pool (with varying degrees of resistance from the population).

Many nations also encourage those deemed to have 'superior' genes (which often equate to those with noble blood or large amounts of money) to have as many children as possible, or if nothing else to donate their eggs or sperm for the artificial insemination of the 'less fortunate'.

In some nations certain types of criminals are sterilised to prevent their 'bad genes' from being passed on to the next generation, and some nations also practise euthanasia. [With no Nazism and no Holocaust eugenics has not been discredited.]

A better understanding of biology and neurology means that in this world brainwashing, interrogation and indoctrination techniques are better developed, and more effective than in the ones on Earth.

SOCIETY

People tend to be fairly conservative, but also believe in the empire, their leaders, and in progress - the power of magic to make a better future. They accept that there is a basic code of civilised behaviour that under-pins society (though the details of this may vary depending on where they come from) and have faith in the necessity of material progress. They tend to be patriotic, with pride in their nation, and civic pride in the places they live, so there is far less graffiti and fewer run-down areas than ơn Earth.

Falmart world is quite poor on human rights. All nations still have the death penalty for heresy, and sentences of hard labour are still handed down for some crimes. The drafting of labour from the populace - a process that has evolved out of the use of forced labour - is considered an entirely justifiable thing to use for 'necessary' projects.

In general, Falmart World has fewer personal freedom than on Earth, but has more discipline and responsibility.

Religion, particularly Falmartian Orthodoxy, has remained very strong over the millennias rather than being whittled away. This has partly arisen because of the existence of a strong religious power in the Holy Darwinian Empire, which has kept other nations religious as a reaction to it. A state religion of one sort or another is considered a necessity for every nation.

Most nations conduct prayers before action, and before meetings of all sorts.

Racism and sexism remain largely institutionalised, though there are varying degrees of tolerance in different places around the world. Homophobia is institutionalised everywhere.

Although there was an increase in sexual freedom after the Unification War, there has not been a sexual revolution in Falmart. The nuclear family is still the standard way of life, with the birth of children out of wedlock being frowned upon. However, there are considerably more liberal view regarding sex before marriage.

There are no internationally-applicable laws equivalent to the Geneva Convention that govern the treatment of prisoners of war and other such matters.

FINANCES

Taxation in the Holy Empire is relatively simple in its theoretical formulation, though elements of it are complicated by changing needs and local circumstances. Both revenue and expenditure are divided between the central and the provincial governments. The Darwinian Emperors have consistently attempted to keep the revenue system operating in as fair and equitable a manner as possible.

The central government reserves land revenue, customs, and profits from the mints, inheritance rights, and karkhanas (state-run industries) for itself. Land revenue and profits from the karkhanas are the most important sources of income; land revenue is based on detailed survey assessments updated at regular intervals, the nature of the crops grown and the current mean market prices, and also varied so as to encourage wasteland to be cultivated.

The principal items of expenditure for the central government are defence, the administration of the Empire, including its religious organizations, maintenance of the Royal Court and the Royal Palaces, and the cost of civil buildings and other public works.

Provincial sources of income consist of revenues distributed by the central government as well as a variety of local taxes, transit dues and duties, and fines. Presents to officials are considered to be bribery, and so are illegal.

There are a large number of Tayefe Karkhanas ['Family industries', much like the Japanese Zaibatsu of the real world] in the Holy Empire. These are, in general, expansive family-controlled banking and industrial combines, large companies that consist of divisions of often seemingly unrelated businesses. The largest of them - among them Tharoor-Pant, Matondkar and Roshan-Yagnik - control more industrial and financial power than some of the smaller nations of Falmart. Because the Imperial government does its best to encourage and nurture business within the Holy Empire, these exert a considerable amount of power in the Holy Empire. However, because there are many of them, with different viewpoints and corporate philosophies, they do not control the government.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The infrastructure of the Holy Darwinian Empire suffers from a lack of standardisation as the different noble Tayefe Karkhanas have built to different standards and ideas in electrical voltages, communications methods, railway gauges and so on in different places. Despite attempts by the Imperial government to rationalise/unify all of its infrastructures, this has met with limited success and so different standards still apply in different places in the Empire.

There are a number of different railway networks in the Holy Empire built by different Tayefe Karkhanas, with government involvement in some of the more strategic lines like the famous Breitspurbahnen. Many of them were forced to a standardised gauge at some point early on, and others have change to this gauge over time out of convenience, but there are still a variety of railway gauges in use in the Holy Empire, a majority of them on private lines. Many of the railways follow the routes of the major roads of the Holy Empire, such as the Grand Trunk Road. Because of this mixture of railway systems, the extensive Darwinian road system has remained the main routes of long-distance transport in the Empire for many people with, in a few places, canals also being used.

---

The Government of The Holy Darwinian Empire

The Imperial government itself, and its ministries, resides in capital Sadera. In formal terms it is an absolutist system with most of the power resting in the hands of the Holy Emperor (Darwinian's succession law still applies, so only the Crown Prince/Princess can inherit the Imperial last name Augustus, the rest of the princes and princesses will carry the Emperor's spouse last name). However, since the reforms made under the guidance of Grand Master Joseph Francois Dupleix in 31767, and the concessions made in 31833 in the wake of the Economic Collapse the Imperial government has effectively become an informal constitutional monarchy.

However, it is still quite dictatorial, although with many social and political reforms and changes over time - such as the abolition of feudalism in 31833 - which have benefited the general populace.

Although the Emperor of Darwinian is nominally an absolute monarch, in reality one of the long-established principles of the Imperial monarchy is that the Emperor cannot act without the advice of his council, and that the Emperor should make decisions only after 'good and careful deliberation'.

In general the Emperors of Darwinian have held to this principle, and very rarely go against the advice of their councils (For example, Molt Sol Augustus only went against the advice of his council 13 times in a 720 year reign).

Although in no sense a democracy, the Societal Wars very much drove home the realisation that the government of Darwinian rules on the sufferance of the people of Darwinian. As such the Imperial government attempts to at least consider the views of the Imperial people when making decisions.

This is done by a process of continuous anonymous opinion polling that samples the views of people across the Holy Empire and feed the results back to the government for analysis and, possibly, action.

The King's Council

The Emperor of Darwinian is advised by his King's Council, which forms the administrative and governmental apparatus around the Emperor. However, because of the need for consideration of different matters by different people, the King's Council has long been sub-divided into a number of more specialised councils. This means that the structure of the Imperial government at its highest level consists of a series of interlocking councils which together make up the overall King's Council and encompass all of the executive, legislative and judicial functions of the government.

The various governmental councils are linked by the members they share with one another, from the Emperor himself, down through the Great Officers of the Crown to the lowlier members. The number and makeup of these councils have evolved over time as the needs of the state have changed. All of the King's Council meet in the Palace of Valhalla.

Below the Great Officers of the Crown the Imperial government is made up of a complex and convoluted hierarchy of lesser Officers of the Crown stretching from the deputies of the Great Officers of the Crown down through the departments of the government and civil service to the lowest levels of the bureaucrats who perform the everyday work of government.

The councils making up the overall King's Council are as follows:

High Council .The most 'senior' of the Royal Councils, the High Council is concerned with the most important matters of state. As such it deals with political and diplomatic issues of all kinds, including war and other crises. It meets regularly, but in general (when no major issues arise) not for long. The High Council is composed of the Emperor, the Crown Prince, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Lord Chancellor of Darwinian, the Controller-General of Finances, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the two Representatives of the People.

Council of Messages. The Royal Council concerned with the administration and internal affairs of the Holy Empire, the Council of Messages deals with matters arising from all parts of the Empire, including Overseas Darwinian and those nations of which it is Suzerain. As such it is made up the Emperor, the Lord Chancellor of Darwinian, all of the Secretary of State, the Controller-General of Finances, the two Representatives of the People, and other members invited according to the issues being discussed. Note that if some matter becomes sufficiently serious it may well be taken over by the High Council for consideration at a higher level.

Royal Council of Finances. Concerned with the economy and finances of the Holy Empire, the Royal Council of Finances is a highly important council within the Imperial government, and because it normally holds the purse-strings has a great deal of influence over the rest of the government. It is composed of the Emperor, the Lord Chancellor of Darwinian, the two Representatives of the People, the Controller-General of Finances, the six Intendants of Finance and six Intendants of Commerce who, under the Controller-General of Finances, run the departments within the Ministry of Finance. The departments under the Conseil were the ones most affected by the reforms of Grand Master Joseph François Dupleix in 31767.

Privy Council. The largest of the royal councils, the Privy Council leads the Imperial legal and judicial systems, being the highest court of the land and arbitrating financial disputes of all kinds. It consists of the Prime Minister of Darwinian, the Lord Chancellor of Darwinian, all of the Secretary of State, the Controller-General of Finances, the two Representatives of the People, those Dukes with peerages, and at least one thousand councillors of state and other lesser members of the government.

Council of Conscience. The newest of the governmental councils of Darwinian in its current form, the present day Council of Conscience was created in 41902. This followed several generations of eugenics policies in a number of nations. The Conseil provides moral and ethical advice to the Emperor and government of Darwinian, particularly in relation to new developments in magic and magitek, and especially in relation to genetic magic and related fields of knowledge, and how they might directly and indirectly impact humanity. This includes advice on such things as eugenics policies within the Holy Empire. As such, in addition to the Emperor, it is made up of the Secretary of State of Science, Health and Foreign Affairs and the two Representatives of the People.

Estates General. The Estates General is a set of three advisory bodies, one from each of the different classes (or estates) of Imperial subjects (the nobility, the clergy and the commoners). These are called and dismissed by the Emperor and debate matters of all kinds to provide advice on them and on policy from elsewhere in the Imperial government to the Emperor. As such it has equal standing with the other councils that form the King's Council.

Although there are nominally three assemblies for the three estates of the people of Darwinian, the assemblies of the nobility and the clergy have not been called since the time of the Societal Wars in the late 32nd millennium. That of the commoners, on the other hand, has been continuously in session for at least that time. Before the Societal Wars (that is, before the late 32nd millennium) the Estates General had been in essentially permanent session since the beginning of the Economic Collapse in 31831 to provide advice to the Emperor and government; however, it had very little real power, and was viewed in quite a cynical light by many people in Darwinian, particularly as the nobility and clergy paid it little mind.

The Societal Wars brought a great need for the Imperial government to meet and consult with the common people of Darwinian in order to resolve the causes of the Wars, and the Estates General was the obvious choice for this. As such, the commoner delegates to the Estates were able to use the Estates General as a neutral meeting place between the various factions, and to act as arbitrators between them. Needless to say, this garnered the Estates General a good deal of power and influence within the Imperial government.

This was used to elevate the status of the Estates . Firstly, by reforming the commoners assembly so that it represented all of the people of Darwinian through its Procureurs. These Procureurs came to be elected on a five yearly basis by the universal suffrage of the entire adult population of the area they represent. Secondly, they were able to have two representatives of the Estates General, selected by lot from the entire assembly, given seats on all of the Councils making up the Imperial government, and status as new Great Officers of the Crown of Darwinian, with equal formal standing to all others there.

These are known as the First and Second Representatives of the People; note that the numbers do not indicate ranking among them given the councils of the Imperial government the much-needed view of the common people, something that they lacked before, and which many consider responsible for the increased stability of the country since then. To outsiders it might seem that the Estates General now form a Imperial Parliament, though this is not strictly true.

Although there have been problems with corruption and nepotism in the Estates General, which have forced various changed to its organisation and its electoral system, in general it works well and provides a useful counterbalance to the powers of the state and the nobility.

As part of its efforts since the Societal Wars, the Estates General has secured the people of Darwinian the rights to privacy, to strike and some degree of free speech. It has also been able to greatly reduce the level of secrecy in the Imperial government by ensuring that details and transcripts of much of the business of the Imperial government are published in Le Bulletin Royale.

Other Councils. There are persistent rumours of the existence of one or more Invisible Council or Black Cabinet, which deal with the highest secrets of the Holy Empire. However, as far as it is known these do not in fact exist.

The Great Officers of the Crown

The Great Officers of the Crown make up the most important Officers of State within the Royal Court and government of Darwinian. They are nominally appointed by the Emperor of Darwinian, though in general this is not done without the advice of the King's Council. With the exception of the Lord Chancellor of Darwinian and the First and Second Delegate, these appointments are for life and are not transmissible or hereditary in any way. The Great Officers serve on one or more of the councils making up the overall King's Council and provide advice and information to the Emperor as required to shape the policy of the Imperial government.

The Chief Minsters of Darwinian, that is the Prime Minister of Darwinian is considered to have power second only to the Emperor, and in times where the Emperor is weak or incapacitated effectively run the Imperial government, current holder of the position is the prodigy 3rd Prince: Diabo El Caesar

The Great Officers of the Crown, and a selection of their subordinates, are listed below:

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; this is, as the name implies, a post responsible for the foreign affairs of Darwinian, including international negotiations and so on. As such they are the head of the Foreign Ministry. The current holder of the position is the 5th Prince Bernard Duvauchelle. In addition to their other roles, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing the non-military Imperial intelligence services. Because of rearrangements of the Imperial government over time, this position has come to partly subsume that of Secretary of State for War, along with the Secretary of State of the Navy and Marshal General of Darwinian.

New Imperial colonies and ones where a great deal of unrest is taking place are usually ruled by a military governor appointed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Most of the Indian states are more trusted than this, but not to the level of becoming part of Overseas Darwinian.

As such they are ruled by Darwinian under a system of suzerainty. That is, they are tributary states of Darwinian, which controls their foreign affairs while allowing them a degree of domestic autonomy that varies from state to state.

Imperial interests are represented in each state via a Resident who lives there, with their staff. Residents are normally diplomats or military officers and effectively run the state via indirect rule through the native government. Under each Resident there are normally a number of Commissioner who are responsible for different aspects of Imperial interests in the state.

Secretary of State for the Interior; one of the Secretaries of State created when the Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor was stripped of much of their powers in 41894, the Secretary of State for the Interior is, as the name implies, a post responsible for matters internal to the Holy Empire, which are overseen via the Interior Ministry.

This includes those of Darwinian's colonies and other overseas possessions that are considered to be more developed and peaceful, which are ruled by Imperial nobles as parts of Darwinian under the Secretary of State for the Interior. These form what is known as Overseas Darwinian The current holder of the position is the 3rd Princess Euphemia Von Lichtberg. As part of their role, the Secretary of State for the Interior is responsible for the Imperial transportation systems, the policing of the Holy Empire via the Imperial Police and also for internal security. As such the General of Police reports to them.

The Imperial Police. Law enforcement within the Holy Empire is the responsibility of the Imperial Police, headed by the General of Police, who is the head of policing for all of the Holy Empire under the political control of the Secretary of State for the Interior. This post is currently held by the 41st Prince Gustave Lenormand.

Since 21720 the Imperial Police was officially attached to the Household of the Emperor. By the time of the Societal Wars, the activities of the Imperial Police, and in particular the undercover Oprichninas [secret police and spies], made Darwinian was a very highly surveilled nation, with spies everywhere, to the point that perhaps one in four Imperial people were paid to spy on everyone around them. This level of surveillance, and the expense of maintaining it, was one of the drivers of the Societal Wars in Darwinian. Most of the records of the Imperial Police were destroyed during the Societal Wars, and since then the nation has been much less spied upon, with legal rights of privacy and so on, and much more review of what spying and intelligence gathering does go on. As part of this, since the Second Societal Wars the Imperial Police was moved to be under the Secretary of State for the Interior.

Since then the Imperial Police has evolved into a true police force rather than the tool of state surveillance and oppression it was before. Though the transition was not without its difficulties it handles all aspects of civilian law enforcement, and is far more open and accountable than it was, with only a very limited level of covert activities permitted. It is divided into two main branches:

The first of these consists of the Police Companies, groups of Marshals assigned to a given area and dispersed through it in small detachments operating out of Police Stations. These handle reports of crime and deal with its investigation and the apprehension of suspects. The Police Companies run by Commissioners of Police, officials holding both local administrative and judicial authority in the district for which the company is responsible. Under these are Police inspectors, investigators responsible for collecting and collating information from each of the districts. They supervise the Exempts Police, officials responsible for maintaining order who in turn are supported by Sentinelles [foot soldiers] dispersed throughout the district and who perform the everyday policing of Darwinian. All Police Companies have a small number of Oprichninas, irregular spies or secret police, who covertly obtain information on the activities of suspect citizens. However, in the present day the numbers and activities of these are very tightly regulated by law.

Separate to this are a number of specialist units. Most of these provide security for specific people or places, such as the Royal Family and royal and strategic sites such as palaces and the mint. Others provide forensic and other specialised support services to the Police as a whole.

In its early days, the uniform of members of the Imperial Police Sentinelles varied from place to place, although it would be consistent within a local area. With the development of the Imperial economy and government in the nineteenth millennium the uniform of the Sentinelles across Darwinian was standardised to the same uniform, a Royal Blue coat and breeches, with black knee bots and a silver military-style helmet. The uniform was changed in the aftermath of the Societal Wars to indicate the reforms of the Imperial Police and to distance it from its pre-Wars incarnation. Since then Sentinelles have worn a uniform of scarlet tailcoat and trousers with brown knee boots and gloves. On their heads they wear a golden galea with a scarlet crest running front to back. This may appear archaic but is made of modern materials and provides a high level of protection. At their belts they wear a radiant [magic radio], crossbow and baton. In locations where higher security is required, such as Sadera, they may also be equipped with more powerful firearms, such as a divine armement.

A number of the best of the Police are invited to join the Guards of the Sleeve as part of the personal guard of the Emperor.

The Ministerial Guard Also under the Secretary of State for the Interior is the Ministerial Guard, one of the most elite units of the Imperial Military. It was founded during the Societal Wars as a non-Royal equivalent of the Imperial Army Lifeguard Brigade to provide protection to the officers of government and their families and property. This is a duty they retain to this day. There is a certain degree of rivalry between them and the Imperial Army Lifeguard Brigade.

Fire officers in Darwinian are known as Pumpers. They originated with the Imperial Navy and, later, the Army and as such are still officially a branch of the Army, being organised, supervised and trained by it. However, in terms of responsibility for and direction of their actions they fall under the control of the Interior Ministry. As on Earth, the Pumpers make use of a number of types of fire engines in the course of their work. These are all painted a highly visible bright orange colour, with yellow trim.

Lord Chancellor of Darwinian; the chief judge of Darwinian, responsible for the judiciary of the Holy Empire, the post is currently held by 13th Prince Maurice Rouget. The Lord Chancellor is responsible for ensuring that laws are implemented and used correctly, and is the final legal arbiter for the Empire as a whole. It is one of the three Great Officers of the Crown to which is holder is not appointed for life. For practical reasons, the deputy of the Lord Chancellor, the Keeper of the Seals of Darwinian, also shoulders a great deal of responsibility for the Imperial legal system.

The Judiciary : The last act of Joseph François Dupleix in 31773 was the reform and simplification of the Imperial legal system. Although there have been problems with it since then, and in particular a number of instances in its early days when those who opposed the changes attempted to reverse them, the system has remained in place and evolved into its modern form. This consists of a network of courts across the Holy Empire, from those at a local level up though more senior regional courts to the highest court in the land under the Lord Chancellor of Darwinian. The judges who sit in them are appointed by the Emperor, but cannot be removed by him to avoid political pressure, and are paid by the state to make them less susceptible to bribery. In general all cases are tried by one or more judges, with lawyers presenting the prosecution and defence cases; there is no system of trial by jury in Darwinian There are four groups of courts within the Holy Empire, each of which has its own judges and facilities, though there is overlap and crossover between them:

The Court of Commons; this is by far the largest group of courts, and is the one that tries cases in which the accused are commoners.

The Court of Aids ; the second largest group of courts, and the one that deals with financial disputes of all kinds.

The Court of Honour ; a much smaller set of courts, which tries cases involving the nobility. Because of the small number of crimes tried within the Court of Honour their judges normally work in other courts most of the time, and their courtrooms are likewise shared with other court groups.

The Officialdom; the smallest group of courts, which tries cases involving the clergy. As for the Court of Honour, The Officialdom shares judges and court facilities with the other court groups.

The procedures and punishments used vary between the four groups of courts. For example, in the rare capital cases, members of the nobility are beheaded rather than hung as commoners are, though in both cases where possible the bodies are disassembled after death to allow the organs to be transplanted into those who require them.

Controller-General of Finances ; a position currently held by the 9th Prince Noemie Arthus-Bertrand, it is responsible for the finances of Darwinian and the Holy Empire. As such the Controller-General of Finances has a very broad remit and is involved with all of the sub-councils that make up the King's Council.

The Royal Bank ;The central bank of the Holy Empire, founded in 716 I.C, and one of the major responsibilities of the Controller-General of Finances. The Royal Bank produces and issues the Imperial currency via the Imperial Mint, regulates the money supply of the Empire, controls Imperial interest rates and regulates the overall banking system of the Holy Empire. The Mint also produces currency for those states within the Holy Empire which retain their own monetary systems, such as many of the Former-Union states.

Secretary of State for the Sciences ; the other of the Secretaries of State created when the position of Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor was stripped of much of its powers in 41894, the Secretary of State for the Sciences is, as the name implies, a post responsible for science and technology within the Holy Empire. The current holder of the position is the 5th Princess Pina Co Lala. As part of their role, the Secretary of State for the Sciences is responsible for the Imperial education system and also for its communications systems of all kinds.

Imperial Telecommunications Council; the organisation responsible for overseeing the Imperial communications network, and in particular the telephone, radiant and television systems under the control of the Secretary of State for the Sciences.

Minister of Defence; the political head of the military, who oversees the the Secretary of State of the Navy, Army and Air Minister of Defence oversees the strategic direction of the Armed Force, as well as its funding and general position within the Imperial political arena. The current holder of the position is the Second Prince: Zorzal El Caesar.

Secretary of State of the Navy; the political head of the Navy, who oversees the Admiral of Darwinian, the Secretary of State of the Navy oversees the strategic direction of the Navy, as well as its funding and general position within the Imperial political arena. The current holder of the position is 19th Prince Gerard de Tassigny.

Admiral of Darwinian ; the head of the Imperial Navy under the political control of the Secretary of State of the Navy. The position is currently held by Grand Duke Beatrice d'Évreux. The Admiral of Darwinian is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the Imperial navy and merchant fleet. As such the Amiral is also responsible for all naval aviation, and for the naval intelligence service.

The Imperial Navy is divided into a number of regional commands based in a given region of the Holy Empire. These include both defensive forces and offensive forces intended for use in that area, but which can be reassigned to other areas if required. The largest command (and the largest fleet) is the Spokojny, based in Darwinian Homeland itself, as well as a number of bases in Australis. The Polarny and Południowy commands that are located nearby are smaller and depend on the Spokojny Fleet for much of their strength. The second largest command is the Atlantycki Fleet, based at a number of locations in the Neo-Ameryka sub-continent. It adjoins and supports the smaller Lemuria and Indyjski Fleets. Those smaller fleets protect these more isolated regions of the Holy Empire.

Secretary of State of the Army ;similarly to the Secretary of State of the Navy, the Secretary of State of the Army is the political head of the Army, oversees the Marshal General of Darwinian, and is responsible for the strategic direction, funding and general position of the Army. The current holder of the position is The 8th Princess Yves Sertillanges.

Marshal General of Darwinian ; the head of the Imperial army under the political control of Secretary of State of the Army. The position is currently held by Grand Duke Trehouard de Rethel. Similarly to the Admiral of Darwinian, the Marshal General is responsible for the upkeep and operations of the armies of Darwinian. This includes the operation or oversight of many of the armaments suppliers who provide their equipment.
The Imperial Army is distributed in a similar way to the Navy. The main difference is that its bases are distributed across the whole of the Empire rather than just along its coastlines.

The Imperial army includes a number of units descended from ones made up of foreign troops serving the Imperial crown. Although nominally of the nationalities implied by their names, by the present day most of these units consist entirely of Imperial subjects, although normally ones whose ancestry includes the appropriate nationality.

Secretary of State of the Air Force ;similarly to the Secretary of State of the Army, the Secretary of State of the Air Force is the political head of the Dragon Knights, oversees the Sky Lord of Darwinian, and is responsible for the strategic direction, funding and general position of the Air Force. The current holder of the position is 11th Princess Élodie Valadon.

Sky Lord of Darwinian ; the head of the Imperial Air Force under the political control of Secretary of State of the Air Force. The position is currently held by Grand Duke Sipir Shikoh. Similarly to the Admiral of Darwinian, the Sky Lord is responsible for the upkeep and operations of the air-formations of Darwinian. This includes the operation or oversight of many of the armaments suppliers who provide their equipment. In addition the Sky Lord is responsible for all army aviation and intelligence gathering.

The Imperial Air Force is distributed in a similar way to the Navy. The main difference is that its bases are distributed across the whole of the Empire rather than just along its coastlines.

The Imperial Air Force includes a number of units descended from ones made up of foreign troops serving the Imperial crown. Although nominally of the nationalities implied by their names, by the present day most of these units consist entirely of Imperial subjects, although normally ones whose ancestry includes the appropriate nationality.

Secretary of State for Health; the newest of the Secretaries of State who form part of the Imperial government, the post of Secretary of State for Health was created, as the name implies, to oversee the health of the Imperial nation and all of its people, and in particular to ensure the safety of the nation against the threat of biological warfare. As such it was split off from the Secretary of State for the Sciences in 47938, when it became clear that it was a role demanding the full-time attention of the person filling it. The current Secretary of State for Health is 33th Princess Pierre-Marie Verlaine.

The Secretary of State for Health is the head of the Ministry of Health. As such they are responsible for public health and welfare within the Holy Empire , and sets the standards expected of those bodies that provide it, including those that support the unemployed and disabled. However, the actual provision of this care is not directly through the Imperial government, but instead is done through other organisations, in particular the Orthodox Church and a number of trusts funded by philanthropists and/or public subscriptions of various kinds, though there are also a number of privately funded hospitals for those who can afford them. As such the exact means by which the different forms of care are provided varies a great deal across the Empire, though all are obliged to meet the standards set by the government. A number of these hospitals have been working under versions of these arrangements for millenniums.

As with hospitals, emergency medical services, including ambulances, are not provided by government, but are subject to standards imposed by the government. They are white, to indicate their medical status, and normally have some form of lights and/or siren to alert others to their coming. Many of them are funded by voluntary donations and legacies, that pay for equipment and training, but in most of them the actual ambulance crews are unpaid volunteers, some drivers, some paramedics, and some medical doctors.

Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor ; originally responsible, as the name of the post indicates, for the upkeep and maintenance of the buildings and household of the Emperor, and for the military, domestic and religious entourage around the royal family in Darwinian, over time the post of Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor came to include many other areas of responsibility within its remit. By the late eighteenth century these included policing, religious affairs, including Protestant affairs, and the administration of Sadera and all of the non-border regions of Darwinian, and by the time of the Second Societal Wars had expanded further to include policing, governmental scientific research, government-run schools and universities, telephony and public communications generally.

All of this made the Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor by far the most powerful and influential of all of the Imperial Secretary of State. Because of the power and influence of the role, the Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor was among the least popular parts of the Imperial government and as such the The Emperor's Household under his control suffered particularly heavy attacks and instances of arson during the Societal Wars. With the ending of the Second Societal Wars the post of Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor was stripped of those of its powers unrelated to the household of the Emperor (that is, most of them) and a number of new Secretary of State posts created. These included the Secretary of State for the Interior which took over regional administration and policing, and the Secretary of State for the Sciences , which took over governmental scientific research, government-run schools and universities, and telephony and public communications generally. As part of this, the post of Chief Steward of Darwinian was merged with that of the Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor. The current holder of the post is 1st Princess Gisèle de Custine.

The Emperor's Household. This department, the responsibility of the Secretary of State of the Household of the Emperor, makes up the military, domestic and religious entourage around the Imperial royal family.

The military part of this entourage is the Imperial Army Lifeguard Brigade, a highly skilled elite group who have fought with distinction in many wars, over and above their duty with the royal family. They provide military protection to the royal family and to royal palaces and so on and are divided into four Companies. The best of the Garde, along with some of the best of the Imperial Police, form the Guards of the Sleeve, an elite squad formed as the personal guard of the Emperor.

The Imperial Army Lifeguard Brigade share the guarding of the Royal Family with a corps of Warrior Bunny Guards, mercenaries known as the Youxia who have served the Imperial royal family for millenials. A second corps of Warrior Bunny serve outside the Royal Palaces guarding the entrances and perimeter. Other Warrior Bunny guard units form part of the Imperial Army as a whole.

The domestic entourage of the Emperor is divided into a number of departments including the Kings Palate that oversees the meals of the Emperor, the King's Chamber that oversees the Emperor's rooms and personal escort, the Revel that oversee court entertainments and Ceremonies that is responsible for royal public ceremonies of all kinds.
The Emperor's Chapel forms the ecclesiastical element of the entourage and is headed by the Grand Chaplain of Darwinian, most often a bishop. It is responsible for the Mass and other religious ceremonies for the sovereign and the royal family, as well as the Emperor's alms and public charities.

First Delegate ; one of the two representatives from the Estates General who sit as equals in the King's Council. They are responsible for ensuring that the Emperor and his councils are at least aware of the views of the common people of Darwinian. The current holder of this post is Sage Élisée Trezeguet.

Second Delegate; the second representatives of the Estates General who sits in the King's Council; note that the First and Second titles do not indicate ranking among the Delegates. The current holder of this post is Knight Maximilien Prévost.

The World Center for Bioweapons Control : Known as the Plague Police, the WCBC (World Center for Bioweapons Control) was founded in 19533 with the signing of the Sanctus Agreement to prevent the spread and use of the weapons of biological warfare around the world. It is the closest equivalent to an international political body (such as the United Nations on Earth) that exists in this world, although it only deals with matters of military technology.

Originally it was nothing more than an actual conference of national representatives. However, after the War of Unification, and through bitter experience, the WCBC has grown into an extensive Imperial-control supra-national organisation as it has become clear that its constant vigilance is required to avoid global disaster.

As such, the WCBC is a multinational group with members hailing from all of the major nations of the world and many of the minor ones, and facilities large and small dotted across the globe. Although it began as a group to monitor bio-warfare, as part of their work the WCBC has inevitably had to investigate all diseases that are reported to it just in case, and this has led to its evolving into a general global disease surveillance and monitoring organisation. As part of this they identify, raise the alarm against and assist when outbreaks of normal diseases occur. Also, because bio-warfare is not just waged against humanoids directly, but also against their crops, livestock and so on, the WCBC monitors and investigates plant and animal diseases of all kinds. [As such, overall, the WCBC works as something not unlike a combination of the real world Centres for Disease Control, World Health Organisation and in particular the Epidemic Intelligence Service and Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, but with the addition of an enforcement arm.]

XXXXXXX

The Imperial absolutist system has led to a somewhat strange division of transportation between the public and private sectors. Imperial trains are nationalised, efficient and eco-friendly. Private transport, on the other hand, tends to be (among the common people at least) either velos [magic powered carriage] or powered by animals as this is what the Emperor and government considers best for people. So in the country there are velos or animal-drawn vehicles bringing people to and from stations where they board efficient and sophisticated magic trains. Likewise there are efficient public transport systems in most Imperial cities. However, magic-powered vehicles are common there for mess-reduction reasons, although velos tend to be widely used as well. Most Imperial roads are quite good, partly because they are used for military purposes.

Another effect of Imperial government policy has been to spread the growth of cities across Darwinian rather than concentrating it in a few places, so that there are more large towns and cities (with skyscrapers) but no very large ones as is the case in many other nations. The same effect is seen across the Holy Empire. With rising populations and increasing problems from climate change, local and increasingly regional governments within the Holy Empire have begun to mandate the creation of vertical farms within cities, either purpose-built or via the full or partial conversion of existing structures. This is intended to increase the self-sufficiency of cities and reduce the amount of food transportation required.

---

Oval Office, Rebuilt White House, Washington DC, 2019

"My fellow humans." President Trump looked into the camera and gave a careful, friendly smile. The truth was that he was actually feeling reasonably happy at this point, his approval rating had gone over 50 percent for the first time in his presidency.

"You have all been following the events in Japan where a portal to another world suddenly appeared and the great Tragedy followed it. Much of the information has been obscure due to the chaos of the Rumbling but now, I am able to give you some accurate information on what has taken place.

"January 1st, 2019 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America and the rest of the world were suddenly and deliberately attacked by the alien empire knew as the Holy Darwinian Empire...

***45 minutes later ***

"Now, however, we must look to the future. We have learned that the force that sent to Earth represents only a small portion of the forces that the enemy has available to him. Beyond that, we know that magic exist in their world and its full potential is unknown. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

"We must mobilize for war. Our armed forces depend on armored vehicles for their mobility and for defense against alien attacks. Those armored vehicles need fuel, a lot of them. We must give them priority for supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel.

"Accordingly, I have given orders for fuel rationing to be instituted here in the United States. Each licensed driver in a family will be allowed to buy no more that twenty gallons of automobile fuel per month.

"Government help will be provided for car pooling and other requirements. There is a crying need for more vehicles to carry the supplies needed to our troops.

"Therefore, most private automobile production in this country is to be converted to military use. Heavy truck plants will, of course, be converted to produce military trucks. Car and SUV facilities will be converted to produce light armored cars or aircraft depending on their level of technology.

"The only exception to this will be factories producing electric cars or small commercial vehicles. We have talked much about replacing gasoline-powered automobiles in our society. Now, our hand has been forced.

"In the last six months, 5 millions of our people and over 150 million people around the world have died. They died because the deliberate attack by the Empire. Now, we must revenge their death and bend every will, every nerve, every muscle in a great national crusade that will see our enemies driven into the dust and humbled. Thank you all, and good night."

President Trump turned off the microphones and stared at the office wall. He'd just told the American people that they couldn't drive around any more they way they used to. Ah well, it had been nice being popular again for a while.

---

Oval Office, Rebuilt White House, 21st, December, 2019

"Did it pass Mike?"

"It did indeed. 99 in favor, one against, you can guess who that was. Effective as of 1800 Washington Time, the United States of America has formally declared war on Holy Darwinian Empire and all its allies. Unconditional declaration, first time we've had one of those for decades. We've issued a conditional ultimatum to them as well. Unless they open the GATE and surrender who caused this disaster for trial within 72 hours, there will be no mercy. Civilian mobilization bill is through, reserves mobilization bill is through, first issue of war bonds will be released tomorrow.

"Next stage is to mobilize industry, we're making plans for that now. We've got the leaders of our major defense contractors up all night, working out what they need and how we can ramp up production. At the moment we're concentrating on getting ammunition supplies increased, we're expecting to use up our stocks of Hellfire and AMRAAM missiles pretty fast , as for aircraft we're hoping Davis-Monthan will bridge the gap until upped production rates start to fill the gap. Ships can wait for the time being, tanks and armored vehicles will be more important, at least in the short term.

"Mister President?" Stephanie Grisham was punctilious about using the President's formal title when other people were around.

"Stephanie ." President Trump turned around, taking quick note of the Press Secretary Grisham's headgear. "Nice hat."

---

Unknow location , USA, 2019

"Time is 1PM, April 25th, 2019," Dr. Surlethe said into the digital recorder. "We are performing an autopsy of a male Demi-human, aged 305. I, Dr. James Surlethe , am being assisted by Professor Urushibata of Kyushu University."

"His corpse smell dreadful. Couldn't we have chilled him ?" asked Urushibata

"We did Professor . Unfortunately dead Demi-human appear to rot very fast indeed. As far as we can tell, its daylight that causes them to decay, not temperature."

"Ultraviolet sensitive then? Would that tie in with reports of their sensitivity to lasers?" A doctor in the observation gallery sounded very thoughtful.

Doctor Surlethe nodded and looked at the Demi-human corpse stretched out on the dissection table in front of him. "This is a big one even by Falmart standards, nearly 3 meters tall, weight 200 kilograms?"

"Before your army shot large pieces off him, yes." Another ripple of laughter ran around the operating theater.

"Let's have a look at the X-rays." Surlethe had them set up on the overhead displays. "Is everybody seeing what I'm seeing?"

"He's very human." One of the watching doctors spoke hesitantly. "Human but not human, as if it was a human body seen through a nightmare."

"Exactly, the body is laid out almost identically to ours. The single upper arm and upper leg bones, the two bones in the lower arms and legs. The same number of ribs, of vertebrae. If we go by bone count and position, this being is human. But, of course, we know he isn't. The bones themselves are twisted and distorted, and there are things here that have no equivalent in our anatomy. Not just superficial things either, like the horns and tail. There's these things as well." Surlethe tapped the body where what appeared to be huge muscles ran down its back. They were so large they made the Demi-human's spine look as if it was in the middle of its body rather than its back. The Demi-humans stunted wings stuck out of them reminiscent of broken branches from a snow bank. "50 percent of his body mass would you say?"

There was a ripple of agreement. "I thought they were muscles that allowed him to fly but they're not. This being can't fly. Did histology come up with anything?"

"Doctor Surlethe, we find this hard to believe but we think they are electrocytes. The samples we took show them to be very similar to those in the electric eel but they are much larger and many times more numerous. The electric eel generates 500 volts at 1 amp, if these cells work the same way, the Demi-human should be able to generate 50,000 volts at 100 amps. Almost 10,000 times more power."

"That would explain much, especially their ability to fire bolts of lightning. Let's have a look inside shall we?"

Surlethe took an electric carving knife, he'd already found from bitter experience that surgical scalpels had a very short life when faced with Demi-human skin, and sliced into the dead Demi-human. The smell was far worse once the skin was opened up and inside, the internal organs were already decomposing into slush.

"From what we can see here, it's the same as with the bone structure. The internal organs are human in placement but wildly different from us in shape and appearance. We have no real idea of the fine detail of function of course. For example, this looks like a liver but is it? What else does it do? Thoughts people?"

"It is as if it was human but became corrupted." The nurse was speaking slowly. "Almost as if this was once human but some being got at it, corrupted its DNA."

"It's worth noting that the other bodies are very similar to this. If this is the result of DNA being corrupted, then the corruption was done systematically. The process has created a new species."

"Did this evolve from us? Or is it parallel evolution?" Another doctor watching the dissection spoke.

Surlethe thought carefully ."I'd say its parallel evolution, they started out as the next-level-up version of us and some being happened to them. Either they've been infected with some being that messed up their DNA or they've been engineered to look like this."

"Genetic engineering needs technology." Yet another doctor. "And we know they don't have it."

"We think they don't Doctor. Its very probable they don't and we certainly haven't seen it yet. But we can't rule out the possibility that there's pockets of technology somewhere. However, genetic engineering doesn't need that high technology, just patience and breeding experiments. Look at dogs, a Rottweiler and a Chihuahua were engineered from the same ancestor. These could be the same." I wish they'd let me dissect that succubus Surlethe thought. Then we'd have some being to compare this with. "Right, well, lets look a bit more before this one decays to nothingness."

---

Camp David Naval Support Facility Thurmont, USA,2019

The War of Justice was a truly multi-national enterprise. That was why sub-munitions made in South Africa were delivered to China for installation in 227mm rockets that were shipped in Greek freighters to Japan where they were issued to American MLRS batteries that gained their mobility from oil that had been drilled in Saudi Arabia and refined in Singapore before being carried by Norwegian tankers to Dutch-built storage facilities on the shores of Japan. Early in the war, at least three economists were reputed to have committed suicide after trying to work out how to pay for everything.

What had made the system possible was the revival of an old system called Lend-Lease. In effect, every nation in the Grand Coalition was supplying whatever it could and it had been agreed that the nations would settle up after the war was over. This was where the Principality of Monaco played its vital part in the war effort. Monaco didn't have tanks or jet fighters although it did have a well-armed and remarkably courteous police force. What it did have were armies of accountants who were furiously engaged in tracking who was building what and who was supplying which arms to which country. They knew what the balances were and who would owe what to whom. They also acted as a clearing house who matched operational requirements to suppliers.

And that was how a Russian-built MZKT-79221 truck painted U.S.A.F. blue was making its way up to Camp David.

XXXXXXXX

"Well, they're all human."

"You have got to be kidding us. There's no way all of them are human."

Dr Surlethe settled back in the conference room chair with every sign of comfort. That was one being the higher ranks of the Army had down to a fine art, their conference rooms were well-furnished, air conditioned and had all the luxuries one might wish combined with hi-tech presentation equipment. It would be years before civilian releases caught up with the Army version of Microsoft Powerpoint. The Marines, now they were different, their "conference room" was usually a tent somewhere with a bare wood trestle table and a few camp chairs. One Marine General had remarked on the Army's "excessive facility" only to be rather coldly told that 'any damned fool can be uncomfortable'.

"Nevertheless, they are human. Sort of." There was a stir of relaxation at the qualification.

"What do you mean Doctor?" General Nutall needed to know a lot about these demi-human, not least because he had almost a thousand of them in a Prisoner of War camp.

"General, we've looked at the DNA of the demi-human and its human." Surlethe thought for a second. "Look at it this way, the difference in DNA between a chimpanzee and a human is around two percent. The difference between Demi-human and human DNA is about one half of one percent. So Demi-human are much more closely related to us than we are to chimpanzees."

"They don't look it."

"No, they don't General." Again Surlethe thought for a moment. "Actually they do. If we ignore the way-out bits, the strange contortions and so on, they do look like us. We started off by thinking that they were a next-level up version of us that simply evolved differently but when the DNA comparisons came through we had to abandon that. There's no doubt about it in our minds, we and the Demi-humans had a common ancestor somewhere way back when. The really big question is did that common ancestor evolve here on earth or somewhere else?"

"I still find it hard to believe that some being that's so different from us could be related to us. DNA shifts and mutation rates can't explain that level of difference."

Protect us from intelligent, well-read generals Surlethe sighed quietly to himself, life had been much easier in the old days when Generals knew how to destroy armies and no being else. Then, they just accepted every being a scientist said. Put on a long white coat and they were as good as gold. This one had an annoying habit of arguing with scientists and, even more annoying, was very often right. He quickly realized that it was about to get worse.

"I've been reading up on the Human Genome Project. According to their findings, the useless repetitive sequences, the junk DNA make up at least 50% of the human genome. According to the people working on that program, the junk DNA doesn't have a direct function, but they reshape the genome byrearranging it, thereby creating entirely new genes or modifying and reshuffling existing genes. It also appears that some being quite drastic happened around 50 million years ago that caused all our junk DNA."

"That's correct General. Our working hypothesis is that somehow we and the Demi-human split away from each other way back then. We went our way, they went theirs. Perhaps we all came from somewhere else and the 'some being quite drastic' was that we stayed here and they went to the Falmart-place. We each used different parts of our junk DNA and activated different strings. The difference may be only one half of one percent but it's a very important one half of one percent. There's more to it than that of course; it looks to us like the Demi-human DNA itself has been corrupted, either by selective breeding, prion infection, both or some being else."

"So, how can you help me look after the prisoners we've acquired."

"Well, General, their metabolic pathways are almost identical to ours. normal foods should work on them just fine."

---

Muncie, Indiana, United States of America,2019

Muncie was a small town, typical of the American rust belt. Highly religious, conservative, with 65,000 people before the Rumbling and 60,000 after, the city had been ailing even before a tenth of the population died. The manufacturing industry had been slowly abandoning the city for decades, leaving it with rusting, overgrown factories, a 23 percent poverty rate, and a hospital and university as the largest employers. The Rumbling had hit the town relatively hard, too as it had most of the rural, conservative American Midwest, leaving the local economy in shambles and even further down the toilet.

Dan Ridenour, newly elected mayor, was sitting at his desk in the Town Hall wondering for the millionth time that day what she was going to do when the telephone rang. He picked it up. "Hello, the Mayor speaking."

"Mr. Ridenour?" The voice was male and unfamiliar.

"Yes? May I ask who this is?"

"This is Jim Schellinger, Secretary of Commerce for Indiana."

"Ah, Mr. Schellinger. How can I help you?"

"Mr. Ridenour, I was contacted not five hours ago by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. You know of United Earth Alliance ?"

"Of course."

"And of the rearmament programs ?"

"Of course. It's been all over the news." Truth was, he'd been doing little more than watch the news since The Rumbling . There had seemed so little she could do even to regain control over her small town.

"Secretary Ross has informed me that the United States is immediately shifting to a war economy. I don't know how things will work on the military side, but on the economic side, we're going to be ramping up production as fast as possible. I've already spoken with the mayors of Indianapolis, Gary-Hammond, Fort Wayne, Evansville, and Anderson. Do you have a list of production overcapacity and unused assets in Muncie?"

"Yes, we do." Unemployment was just the single most pressing problem in the city, and had been for forty years.

"We need to compare our list with yours, and then we'll send the updated version to the US Department of Commerce. They'll be asking corporations to buy them up and get working on military equipment. Given Indiana's central location, rail accessibility, and manufacturing history, we'll be up nearthe top."

Schellinger gave Ridenour the fax number for the Indiana Department of Commerce, and within twenty minutes, the substantial list of old factories, closed-up warehouses, abandoned rail yards, and defunct properties was on its way to Indianapolis. A half hour and two double-checks later, it was again winging its way through cyberspace to Washington, D.C., where an undersecretary of commerce opened it and copy-pasted its contents into a secure website, open only to the procurement officers of the vast national and international corporations which supplied the US military with its equipment.

The next day, Ridenour was in his office when the phone rang again. "Hello?"

"Mayor Dan Ridenour?" Another unfamiliar voice.

"Speaking."

"This is John Walker, with Borg Warner Automotive. In light of the recent developments, we've decided not to close down the plant in Muncie. Instead, we're retooling it to provide transmissions for tanks."

"Well, that's certainly happy news. Thank you."

The man hung up, Ridenour got back to his paperwork, and within a half hour the phone rang again. "Hello?"

"Mayor Dan Ridenour of Muncie?"

"Speaking."

"I'm James Torida of General Dynamics Land Systems. We have acquired an older factory in Muncie to build M1A2 parts, and we would like the cooperation of the local government in finding employees and in renovating and retooling the plant as quickly as possible."

"We'd love to help in any way we can."

They discussed the details of the deal for fifteen minutes, then hung up. Ridenour heaved a sigh– two in one day! Wow!

The phone rang again fifteen minutes later. It was General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, wanting again cooperation, tax breaks, etc., to get another old plant up and running, this time to manufacture AIM-125 missile casings. Ridenour was more than willing to cooperate.

Before business hours ended, three more corporations had called. One wanted to acquire land to build a fourth railroad track south through the city; apparently, it was working on a line south from Chicago to Cincinnati and the Ohio River to supply raw materials from the mines in Minnesota and Ontario down to barges on the Ohio. The second had bought two abandoned warehouses on the south side of Muncie and wanted to open up the old track yard to the warehouses to help supply the rejuvenated factories. The third was applying for a construction permit for the properties northwest of town that had so recently been slated for urban sprawl.

---

804 South Tillotson Ave., Muncie, Indiana, USA,2019

Jim Schenkel had been a tool machinist for forty years before being laid off from his long-time job in 2013. He'd elected to retire instead of pursuing another job, and for the past six years he'd followed the same schedule: up at six, drink his coffee, read the morning paper over toast, an egg, and a glass of orange juice, tend his gardens until lunch, eat a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, monitor his investments and piddle around in his workshop until dinner, eat a bowl of soup, then watch the news until 10.

It was 1:30 AM when the phone rang. Groggily, he rolled over, and picked up the receiver on the sixth ring. "Hello?"

"Jim? Jack Roberts here." Jack Roberts was his old supervisor at the ABB factory, before they'd all been fired and the place shut down.

"Jack? Why the hell are you calling me at -" he squinted at the clock

"1:30 in the morning?"

"Jim, you're re-hired. We need you in tomorrow morning at 6:30."

"What the hell's going on, Jack?"

"The factory's been started back up for the war effort. We need all the equipment repaired and retooled; the management wants the lines rolling in a week."

"… the hell? I'm retired, goddamnit."

"Like I said, we need you back. To be blunt, Jim, you don't have a choice. We'll send men out to get you if you can't make it on your own."

"I don't give -" he stared at the receiver, listening to the audible dial tone.

The next morning, at 6:30, he pulled into the parking lot of the ABB factory on the south side of town, and stared. It was packed with cars, and people were streaming toward the factory. The factory itself was brightly lit; the loading docks were packed with semis, and parts were already starting to form small piles waiting to be taken inside. He parked his car and joined the flow of humanity heading back to work.

That morning, The Star Press headlines read, "Look out, Aliens!

Here comes Muncie!" That day, the Mayor's office received eight more phone calls from corporations, and the first semis and trains started to roll into the city as construction equipment started to move away from the university – which had agreed to put its new dorm on hold for the time being to aid in the war effort – and toward the old, broken-down factories. Overnight, the city had been transformed.

And it wasn't alone. All across the eastern Midwest, the rust belt was being de-oxidized. Surveyors were entering old factories, cleaning companies entering and sweeping up dust, weeds being cleared and broken windows replaced. Lights that hadn't shone for decades were being turned on and replaced; cars were parking in lots that were more grass than gravel and hadn't been touched by tires for thirty years. More and more trains were rolling out of yards and thundering down the immense but ailing network of tracks connecting American cities to each other, and tractor-trailer semis were moving down the highways in huge fleets, carrying piping and wires and tools and other implements of the new war economy.

Local 3751, ATK Medium Caliber Systems, Mesa, Arizona, 2020

"Look, it's like this see. The plant is going to triple shift work whether we like it or not. We've talked with the bosses and this is what we've come up with. Morning shift from 6am to 2pm. Afternoon shift from 2pm until 10pm. Graveyard shift from 10pm until 6am. Graveyard pays double time. Shifts switch around monthly so everybody gets a crack at the double time."

"What about weekends?"

"Forget them. Everybody works four days on, one day off. That'll be staggered so there's a full shift working the plan all the time. 24/7."

"Four days on, one day off? That's not fair."

"Shadap Al, the boys on the front line don't get one in five off, why should we." A mutter of agreement ran around the room.

"What happens if we don't approve the deal?"

"Mexicans. Or the Army gets the sub-munitions from Israel. Or wherever. Anyway, I'll put it to the vote. All those for accepting the management offer?" Hands went up all over the room. "And against?" A scattering of hands, mostly those the organizer recognized as those who voted against everything. "It's carried. New arrangements start tomorrow. Management will tell you which shift you're starting on and your day off."

A few hundred yards away, another meeting was being held. One where the worker's spouses were being gathered. Once it would have been an all-women gathering, these days a few men were there as well.

"So that's the new arrangements. Look, the guys on the production lines are going to be working their asses off, they don't need to be worried about problems at home.

So if there is a problem, deal with it, don't go whining. If you can't deal with it, see us here at the Union. We can help. Above all that, help each other. You older women, you've been through this before. You know the problems the young mothers will face, be there for them. Even if its just baby-sitting so she can get out of the house and have some peace for an hour, do it. Watch out for the oldsters as well, nobody will be around as much as they were so we all have to look out for each other."

Across America and the world the same meetings were being held, the same messages given. Under them all was another simple, deeper message. The whole world was at

war.

---

Moscow, Greater Russia ,2020

And these changes were hardly unique to the US. In Greater Russia, Vladimir Putin had immediately accelerated the redevelopment of the military; old factories closed during the economic woes of the 1990s were being reopened, old mines and oil wells were being rechecked for viability. The storage depots and military installations were being searched for equipment, tanks, armored carriers, artillery that had been sitting in storage for a decade or more was being refurbished. New tracks were being laid, and the first of tens of thousands of new tanks were rolling off the final assembly lines even as he walked toward this meeting, flanked by security forces.

Putin entered the church, and crossed himself before the altar before he turned to the men gathered there, about ten in all: the heads of the Russian mob. He spoke first, taking charge, as always.

"Gentlemen. You are not stupid; you know why I've gathered you here today."

They all nodded with varying degrees of alacrity. Putin continued. "Now, the human species faces a threat greater than anything it has ever faced in its past. This is now our reality."

He paused to evaluate what he saw in their faces. Blank, hard, determined

They share the vision, he reminded himself, just like every live human now.

"Therefore, in return for amnesty from prosecution for any crimes which may have been committed prior to the Rumbling, I would like to request that all of you cease from any illegal activities in which you may now be engaged."

There was a small stir in the room. One, a fat man with an unlit cigar drooping from his lips, spoke. "Sir, with all due respect, why do you take us for criminals."

As he spoke, Putin fixed him with a lidless stare until the other man dropped his gaze.

"We are not stupid, you nor I. You know that I called you here today; you know that I am aware of who you all are in actuality and where you may be found. These things are not unknown to the government."

"Then why are we guaranteed amnesty?"

"Because the fabric of society must not buckle during this war. All of you are hard men; we need such men to help prepare our society for the terrors of a war on the very forces of Terror. And we will need such men to administer the territories of Falmart once it has been conquered. I am asking all of you to become respectable, but I am not asking you to lose profits."

That seemed to seal it for most of them. As he walked away, Putin allowed himself a thin smile. Russia would show the world what she was capable of, and Russia would play her part in the Great War ahead.

---

Office of the Secretary of Defense, The Pentagon, Washington DC,2020

James Mattis sighed and rubbed his eyes. The logic laid out by the charming but ice-cold Thai General was undeniable, especially with what they'd learned from that high elf General Schatten had brought into the White House. Grand wizards could teleport into any large group of people. So there had to be guards everywhere. That meant a militia, well, the Constitution provided for that, encouraged it even. And there were enough guns floating around in America to arm it. His pen sketched doodles on a pad. Of course the term militia was out, too many negative connotations these days. His eye rested on picture of the American Civil War and the letters USV. United States Volunteers. That wasn't right though, these people would be defending their homes. Local Defense Volunteers. That had a good ring to it and glossed over the fact that they were going to be drafted.

Every man and woman between the ages of 18 and 50 who wasn't already part of the armed forces, that was what the new draft would bring in. To be armed and sent as patrols to sports stadiums, schools, malls, anywhere people would be gathering. Average strength on any given day, 27 million. One more burden for a nation that was already working long hours with little rest.

Yet, the benefits were already showing, new rocket launchers, infantry fighting vehicles, heavy tanks were starting to flow from the production line. Aircraft were the problem, production would take a long time to ramp up and bring retired old aircraft back from the graveyard could only achieve so much.

His phone beeped. "Mister Secretary. A Ms O'Leary to see you. She's your eleven o'Clock."

Mattis sighed again. What did she want? "Miss O'Leary, How can I help you?"

"Secretary Mattis , I understand you'll be needing a lot of guns, needing them quickly and they have to be powerful enough to take down a Falmartian with a minimum number of shots."

"That is so." More than you can possibly realize he thought. "I own a small custom gun producing company. We make a derivative of the M1 Garand in. 458 Winchester. Our production isn't great but we can expand a bit and we know other companies that can do the same. There are quite a few others, including Springfield who make the M1A, a semi-automatic version of the M14, who can retool to make. 458 Winchester versions of that weapon. Between us we can make a lot of these rifles.

They're accurate at longer range than the. 50 M16s you're introducing and they don't use the same industry resources. We can use furniture makers for the wooden stocks etc, and the parts are milled, not stamped. There's lots of small engineering companies that are hurting right now, they aren't into the high-tech stuff our modern weaponry requires. But for something at World War Two levels, they're perfect. And they want in on the war effort."

And in on the profits Mattis thought. But she was right, and this would help arm the Local Defense Volunteers. And it did make use of small industrial capacity." An excellent idea Miss O'Leary. Let's talk money on this."

Cabinet Office, White House, Washington D.C.,2020

"We must anticipate that there might be attacks using dimensional portal. " Secretary Mattis was interrupted by a tangible shudder that ran around the room. This was something many people were worry about, a suprise attack using dimensional portal by the Empire. The existence of dimensional portal had opened up a frightening possibility of suprise attacks anywhere, nowhere was safe

"So, as a line of defense against such attacks, I propose the formation of a local defense force that will protect areas where there are largegatherings of people. Malls, sports meetings etc. The personnel will be drawn from all citizens between the ages of 18 and 50 who are not currently serving in the armed forces.

Obviously, we'll give priority to people whose industries are not needed for the war effort, they can serve one of theirwork days. We'll arm them with the new. 458 rifles we're putting into production. I propose the new force be called the Local Defense Volunteers."

"Local Defense Volunteers." Sarah Elizabeth Sanders's voice was thoughtful. "LDV. You know what they'll be called don't you? The Look, Duck and Vanish."

"Look, Duck and Vanish?" Mattis thought for a second. "I suppose so. How did you come up with that?"

"The British had a similar force back in World War Two. Originally they called it the Local Defense Volunteers but they changed it to 'Home Guard' because of the misinterpretation of the acronym."

"How did you get Local Defense Volunteers anyway Jim ?" President Trump's voice was curious.

"I was looking at a picture of the Civil War and it made me think of the U.S. Volunteers. The new group is for Local Defense so I put the two together."

"What's wrong with U.S. Volunteers?" Trump was curious. "Sounds good to me. We can revive all the names of the Civil War units for the local forces. We can even call on some of those re-enactor people to start them off. They'll have to use their own guns to start with of course."

"I'd love to see the effect of a minie ball on a Falmartian." Mike Pence's voice was droll.

"So, we'll get the bill written and pushed through. U.S. Volunteers it is. So decided?" Trump looked around. There was a unanimous nodding of heads. "So be it. Next issue?"

"Aircraft production Sir. We're getting the B-1 production line set up now. It'll be starting work in around three months time, expect to see the first aircraft off the line this time next year. It's good we kept the tooling. The first AT-45Cs are coming off the Boeing line now.

They're aminimum-change armed version of the T-45C, they'll keep the line running until the single-seat D model is ready. F-111s and B-52s are re-entering the fleet from Davis Monthan now. A lot of older aircraft as well, we've got some like the F-4 being assigned to wings, more as placeholders than anything else. The rest we're going to use for tests. To see what sort of aircraft can fly in Falmart-like conditions."