The Fourth Council Race

by Knight Vigilant Koren

A few minor and realistic changes in the decisions made by the leaders of humanity drastically altered the path of Citadel Space and the Reaper War. This is the story of caution and planning over recklessness, the path of the juggernaut over the glass cannon. This is the story of humanity as it should have been. A power worthy of its Council seat, and one the Reapers can't ignore.

14. Chapter 14

Standard Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect, nor any other content that you recognise. Some characters and systems are original creations. I am receiving no money for my work.

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Vancouver – Earth

2112.11.05

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"Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." The words echoed softly around the cavernous, almost empty room. As if to provide a contrast to the dark thoughts of their speaker, bright sunlight streamed through the giant windows.

"You're in a poetic mood today Thomas." Anaya Khatri muttered as they waited in the council antechamber in the Systems Alliance Headquarters building on the waterfront of Vancouver.

Thomas Carmichael, the First Space Lord, just looked wearily at his army counterpart. When what was already being referred to as the 'panzer elite' regiments under Colonel's Albricci and Muller shattered a section of the turian legion on Shanxi, the remainder of the Alliance army had quickly exploited the gap. The turians had fought well, but with such a large hole ripped in their formation their left flank was successfully detached from the main force – encircled – and finally destroyed.

The Alliance army had then turned on the now exposed turian centre cutting deeply into it and causing it to shatter while pounding the right flank relentlessly, never letting them retreat. The final blow had been the death of General Sparatus, who had apparently been the turian commanding officer. None of the Alliance soldiers had known what vehicle she was in, or even that they had killed her until a 'Commander Atticus' had issued a general broadcast and announced that he had taken command following the General's death.

Recognising the hopelessness of his position, that even if by some miracle he managed to retreat and regroup his legion was finished, he had acquiesced to Field Marshal Moran's demands and surrendered unconditionally to the Systems Alliance.

As soon as the news had made it to them, Fleet Admiral Carmichael and Field Marshal Khatri had made the information that Admiral Drescher had engaged and defeated the alien invasion – both in space and on the ground and was now pushing through the Theta relay into enemy territory – public throughout the entire Alliance.

Earth had promptly exploded. Riots and demonstrations, already taking place across the globe, increased by an order of magnitude. Some rioters condemned the military's actions, more condemned the Alliance Executive Council for refusing to authorise them.

Even here, in the centre of the Alliance Headquarters building, they could hear the protests consuming Vancouver outside. When even the mild-mannered Canadians – who were even less likely to protest than the British population they had originally descended from – took to the streets in such numbers across their nation? It was safe to say that the Alliance Council would have probably preferred to take their chances with a huge amount of explosives in the building's cellar instead of this.

"Summoning the First Sky Marshal and the First Space Lord!" The call echoed down the empty corridor, filled only with the Executive Council's guards that spent the entire time staring dead ahead, stone faced.

"Here we go." Thomas Carmichael muttered as he glanced over in solidarity at his friend. Together they entered the council chamber to alternating cheers and screams of condemnation from the public gallery.

Facing them as they entered were the leaders of the member nations. As soon as the detailed information about the sieges of Shanxi and Zapala had hit the extranet, a meeting of the Alliance Executive Council had been called.

When the information that the Alliance military had been ready to go and lift the sieges, but had been held back by the two world superpowers playing politics hit the extranet it had promptly been upgraded to an emergency meeting.

When the final infodump that the Alliance military had disobeyed orders and sailed out anyway. Successfully lifting the sieges within 24hrs of their arrival, just before the heroic garrison on Shanxi had been overwhelmed was made public. Something that was a surprise even to them. The the Alliance member nation's leaders had decided to take the place of their ambassadors on the Executive Council, both to interrogate their two premier military officers in person and to try and spin themselves out of the political shit storm that was suddenly threatening to overwhelm them.

They had also decided to live stream this part of the meeting, betting on their political ability to allow them to outmanoeuvre two military officers and unite Earth against the military coup that the two of them had – truthfully – actually carried out. Even if they would deny that fact to anyone not involved to their dying days.

The American President, Andrew Goldwater sat stony faced. He was facing re-election in two weeks' time and how well he managed to spin this would make or break his attempt to return to the Whitehouse for a second term. Thankfully the fact that he was in an election gave him a large advantage. The poling companies had been working overtime for months, giving him every scrap of data that they could find on the thoughts and opinions of the American people on every subject imaginable that might benefit his campaign. Including the Systems Alliance and the two officers standing in front of him.

The exposure of his and the State Department's plan to deliberately not counter the Chinese stalling actions on the Executive Council, let Shanxi and Zapala fall – and cause China's humiliation on the world stage – then swoop in and play the hero. Liberating both colonies while looking like dedicated protectors that had been held back by evil foreign machinations, had decimated his polling numbers. The American people were angry, and he needed to give them a target other than him if he was to have any hope of re-election.

Seated next to President Goldwater, in the second of the two centre and front seats of the semi-circular raised banks of council members, was Li Xiuqing, President of the Peoples Republic of China. It was China that the military coup had humiliated on the international stage. It was China that was already dealing with the worst unrest it had seen in decades – both on and off world – due to how they were willing to sacrifice an entire Chinese colony rather than see it relieved by non-Peoples Liberation Army troops. The tension could have been cut with a knife as he glared forcefully at Admiral Carmichael and Field Marshal Khatri.

"What gave you the right Fleet Admiral? Field Marshal?" President Li began, playing to the cameras that were livestreaming the session. He wished to establish the Executive Council's authority from the outset in the minds of the world's population, and in this he had the advantage of the truth being on his side. Even if the Space Lord and the Sky Marshal managed to convince people that they hadn't staged a military coup, there was no doubt that their actions were mutiny. At best.

At worst they were treason, an angle that President Li intended to push hard lest any of the PLA generals get dangerous ideas. "What gave either of you the right to send soldiers and sailors of the Systems Alliance to fight and die without our authorisation?"

Admiral Carmichael stood steadfast as he responded. "The military situation demanded it. We were under attack from a hostile ALIEN power and our counter attack had already been delayed beyond all reason. The garrisons of our colonies held on, fought to their last breaths, confident that the Alliance was on its way to save them. Only it wasn't, because of you. We made the decision to save both the garrison and the civilians of the Theta system from being overrun, whether this Council could get its head out of its arse or not!"

The President Goldwater flushed darkly as anger flittered across his face. "Childish insults will NOT help you here Admiral! The military of the Alliance answers to its political – CIVILIAN – leadership. You do NOT get to decide what is best for our people, that is what WE, the ELECTED representatives do." The President stressed each word with care, highlighting deliberately the subordination of the military to an elected civilian body. A measure that the entire western world, but especially America, demanded.

"And a pretty piss poor job you two have been doing of it! Letting them and your voters die for your own internal political reasons!" Field Marshal Khatri stated openly without any respect whatsoever, her tone practically dripping with contempt for the leaders of the two superpowers. Leaders who's constant fighting over the title of the most powerful nation on Earth had led them all to this point.

Both Presidents were certainly almost apocalyptic with rage, but neither let it show. They were seasoned politicians and would not allow two jumped up grunts to provoke them into making mistakes so easily. The rest of the Executive Council was silent, watching the argument but making no comment, something President Goldwater noted with concern.

The state department had flagged the lack of communication from some of their closest allies as to which way they would jump in this meeting. He had dismissed it as paranoia, or their leaders not wanting to tie themselves to his administration in case he failed to spin this correctly and went down in flames. Now, when carefully chosen phrases were having no visible effect on those who should agree with them most, he began to worry that he had dismissed the state departments concerns to easily.

"Again, that is not for you to decide. The people need to know that they are led by leaders that are accountable to them, CIVILIAN leaders. Not military dictators that will just use tanks to keep their boots on the throats of the people, whenever they decide that something is a 'military necessity.'" President Li issued the statement without letting any of the hypocrisy he should be feeling show on his face. He was playing to the democratic section of the audience, confident he already had the nationalistic authoritarian section in the bag. He was right, and it was working.

Reminding everyone of the dangers of military dictatorship, something that many countries watching had experienced, some even within living memory, was a smart play. The public in the gallery and around the world began to swing behind the two Presidents, turning against the military coup and direct – dictatorial – rule that the two officers represented, fairly or not.

"They didn't make that decision. I did." Prime Minister Rajendra Tharoor of India spoke up.

Stunned silence fell across the Executive Council. Anaya Khatri grinned internally as all of the negotiations her family had frantically conducted behind the scenes paid off in front of her. The Khatri family had several contacts in the Lok Sabah, and she had pushed them hard to get the prime minister on board. Once they had, feelers had been discreetly sent out to other nations.

With the Republic of India, the third largest economy and third most powerful nation in the world on their side, claiming responsibility for the orders that sent the Alliance navy and army into battle without the Executive Council's authorisation, the other governments had been more willing to listen when their leaders were approached by their nation's highest ranked Alliance military officers that were in on the coup.

The public need never know that this was cover story, agreed upon long after the fact. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the first time Alliance forces went into battle they would have done so under civilian leadership, even if it wasn't the civilian leadership they were supposed to be loyal to. Many people would guess the truth, but the fact that there had actually been a military coup would never – officially – see the light of day.

Like is ancestor, Dr Sashi Tharoor, the Indian Prime Minister was a fantastic public speaker and he knew how to work public opinion. He did both now as he descended from his seat in the council chamber to stand with the two military officers on the floor, facing down the two most powerful people in the world from the metaphorical position of the average citizen. An image that carried a lot of power for those nations that had seen political dictatorships in living memory, not just military ones.

"This Executive Council was useless, paralysed by internal divisions. Chasing your own domestic political goals." He gestured contemptuously at President Li. "Or seeking to use the situation to advance your position in the game of nations." He sneered at President Goldwater. "When the Space Lords and the Sky Marshals came to me, begging me to help. To allow them to go and save our people who were fighting and dying for the Alliance, for ALL the people of the Earth, while you two sat back and used THEIR blood to play YOUR games? I couldn't refuse their request."

"I spoke with India's friends and allies and we decided that we would not stand idly by and watch the power plays of politicians paid for with the blood of their peoples loved ones." In perfectly agreed upon choreography and timing the French, German, British, Polish, Italian and Spanish leaders rose from their seats and joined him on the floor.

With a significant chunk of the Executive Council now with him on the floor of the council chamber, Rajendra Tharoor gestured dramatically to the Field Marshal and the Fleet Admiral. "These officers didn't commit a military coup to further their own power and place us all under the jackboot of an interstellar military junta. They sent the Alliance Fleet into battle on behalf of the Republic of India and the European Union to save their fellow humans from an ALIEN attack."

The council chamber and the public watching erupted in chaos as the national leaders and their people screamed at the Indian and EU leaders, at the American and Chinese leaders, and at eachother.

"THIS COUNCIL." Prime Minister Tharoor bellowed over the chaos, his deep voice carrying clearly despite the outrage. "PROVED TO BE WORSE THAN USELESS DURING THIS INVASION! IT PROVED TO BE AN ACTIVE HINDERANCE TO OUR COLLECTIVE DEFENCE. YOU! ALL OF YOU! CAUSED UNCOUNTED HUMAN DEATHS! AS SURELY AS IF YOU HAD KILLED THEM YOURSELVES!"

The chamber fell to silence as that accusation hit home. Granted it was hyperbole, for starters the number of human deaths were actually in the process of being counted, but no one wanted to make that argument. And with the machinations of the Peoples Republic of China and the US State Department public knowledge due to the leaks, there was no possibility of those two nations denying the accusations. They were true after all.

"The Systems Alliance has succeeded, it has proved its worth." Prime Minister Tharoor continued, holding his worldwide audience captive whether they agreed with him or not. "Our fellow humans on both Shanxi and Zapala are alive and free because of them, because the men and women of our military put country aside and fought as one – united – species against an alien aggressor. When the aliens came for us, with one voice the people of the Systems Alliance stood up and roared NO! NOT ON OUR WATCH! This Executive Council FAILED, completely and utterly, because you could not do the same."

"You are not fit to lead the Systems Alliance! You cling to the past and the petty advantage of your own nations. You refuse to work together as the people of the Alliance demand, even in the face of alien attack. You do not represent the will of the Alliance people! That was represented by the fleet and army that relieved Shanxi, that went to the aid of their human brothers and sisters no matter their race, religion OR nationality."

Rajendra Tharoor had planned his speech well, each section played to a different part of the world audience. Drawing them in, making them invest in his words and then sweeping them along for the ride as his speech turned and slammed the status quo of the Alliance body politic. Represented by the Executive Council as a whole, but in particular by the leaders of the two superpowers.

"And who is fit to lead? You, Prime Minister?" President Li left the title dripping with contempt. He could see that he had lost the battle for hearts and minds worldwide and was cutting his losses. His sole focus now was to rally the Chinese people behind him and against the 'other'. The fact that the military officers had relied on India and Europe for their political cover was of great use to him in this regard.

The Chinese people were used to seeing their regional rival with distrust, and the communist party made sure that the humiliation of Imperial China at the hands of European Imperialist powers was still front and centre in the school history books.

"India is still only the third most powerful nation on Earth, don't get ideas above your station. As for the rest of you, I see only pathetic remnants of Empires chasing their lost glory at the expense of the Chinese people. The century of humiliation is long past. China is unified and strong, and your plans will shatter on the strength of her people. You cannot survive without us, and we will never agree to whatever…..travesty you propose."

President Goldwater sat in stony faced silence during President Li's rebuttal. Franticly working through different courses of action he could take, trying to see a way through the disaster that was unfolding before him. Several courses of action would preserve American power, but would be unacceptable to the American people in the short term and may cost him the election if he tried to convince them.

The others would preserve American power, be acceptable to the American people, and would probably win him re-election into the bargain. But they were all incredible all-in gambles, there would be no turning back. Behind a veneer of calm the Andrew Goldwater continued to run cost/benefit ratios in his head, caught by surprise and without the option to consult the state department, he would have to make a choice here and now. If he had any attention to spare, he would be cursing himself for suggesting that the meeting be livestreamed, forcing him into this corner of responding at once rather than stalling for time then denying and fudging any media reports.

He was supposed to be facing military officers, out of their depth and with no legitimacy, discredited by their actions even if they were telling the truth. He was definitely not supposed to be facing one of the most skilled political operators on the planet, who had the truth on his side in the most important matters and the support to bury the bits of the truth that would hurt him. But that was the position he had ended up in and now he had to roll with it.

"It is not I who will rule President Li." Prime Minister Tharoor gave a winning smile and gestured to the cameras. "Unlike you, we trust our people. The citizens of the Systems Alliance will rule themselves, as they deserve to do. The Republic of India moves that the Executive Council of the Systems Alliance be immediately abolished, and that it be replaced with an Alliance wide election to form a Constitutional Assembly. An assembly that will be charged with creating a constitution and a directly elected parliamentary government for the Systems Alliance.

"The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland seconds the motion, both in our own right and on behalf of the European Union." Prime Minister Vince Cable beat Chancellor Lindner of Germany to the announcement by a fraction of a second, much to the latter's chagrin.

President Li snorted in disgust and swept dramatically out of the chamber. The rest of the Executive Council, silent throughout as they tired to ride out the storm between the two competing factions, was now caught between two giants. All of them wished for nothing more than to be able to stall, to consult their foreign ministers and see which way the wind was blowing long term, to see which side offered them the best chance of increased prosperity or which side would grant them the most concessions.

But they couldn't, they had agreed to President Goldwater's proposal to livestream the session and now they were trapped by it. Forced to pick a side here and now. Based on the visible reaction in favour of Tharoor's speech and fact that China walked out rather than vote against the proposal – showing that President Li thought it would pass – one by one they voted for the proposal. Each vote for the proposal reinforced the next, making it more difficult for leaders that had grave reservations to break ranks. Finally, only President Goldwater was left.

The President of the United States didn't say anything. He simply looked resolute and stood, moving towards the exit from the chamber rather than casting his vote futilely and granting legitimacy to the proposal.

"Mr President." Vince Cable, the Prime Minister of Great Britain stepped forward. "Don't do it. Stay and help shape the new government of humanity. Remember the Brexit debacle, walking away from a union rather than fighting to reform it? It never works. Britain tried to hold on to a power that had long since faded away. We left the most successful economic union and peace project Europe has ever seen, chasing our past rather than embracing our future and leading the reform efforts. We failed to accept that the world had changed, that the time of the nation state standing alone against all others was long gone."

"The globalised world swept away all those that tried to stand alone against it, people working together across national boundaries was the future, as the success of this very Systems Alliance demonstrates. Don't make the same mistake, don't try to stand alone against the galaxy. Face it with us, together."

President Goldwater was unmoved, so Prime Minister Cable made one last effort.

"Consider the fate of Britain outside the EU. Isolated, irrelevant, families torn apart as the young watched the future they wanted taken away from them. All the while the Union moved on without us, growing economically and politically, taking on the global corporations and protecting each other against outside threats. Only now, 70 years after our re-entry, have we reversed the damage and reclaimed the respect and relevance that we threw away in 2016 chasing a rose-tinted dream. Don't. Do. This. It will be the end of America as a world power."

President Andrew Goldwater simply held his head high, his choice unaffected. He knew what the American people would except and what they wouldn't, and they would never accept being just another nation state. The American people believed themselves to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth, and as President of the United States it was his job to make that belief reality.

"We are the United States of America, one nation, under God, the most powerful nation and the greatest nation on Earth. We will not submit to anyone. You can make this Alliance a superstate it if you want, sell your own sovereignty for a few technological trinkets. But America will NEVER join it, we bow to no one!"

President Goldwater looked several of America's strongest non-European allies' leaders in the eyes as he spoke, trying to impress on them the lengths America would go to to halt this travesty. As he walked out, confidently and with considerably more dignity than his Chinese counterpart, he hoped he had done enough. Planted enough uncertainty to pry several of them away from India/EU faction and back onto America's side.

The remaining members of the Alliance Executive Council shifted uncertainly, looking around, trying to figure out what to do next. America and China were the two most powerful nations in the world, from the beginning of the Systems Alliance all the leaders present had always aligned themselves with one or the other. Now both of them were gone.

The entire existing world order had been blown to smithereens in only a few minutes, and no one knew who would successfully wrest the crown of the leading nation of humanity from the thorn bush it had landed in. Or who would cut themselves to death in the attempt.

Prime Minister Rajendra Tharoor walked up behind Prime Minister Cable and gripped his shoulder in solidarity. "You did your best Vince."

Prime Minister Cable was genuinely sorry to see America walk out rather than join the new Systems Alliance, the loss of such a close ally was a blow to British power and influence as well as causing practical and legitimacy problems for the new Systems Alliance. Prime Minister Tharoor was likewise genuinely sorry to see them go, but he was also secretly pleased. China was never going to agree to be part of the new government, but if America had stayed then it would have been far more difficult to advance the cause of the Indian people.

The challenges facing the Alliance had multiplied now that the Americans had walked out – causing all of them significant headaches that they could already ill afford – but the departure of the Americans had also put the biggest prize of them all in play. The crown of the leader of humanity was finally – truly – within India's reach, and both of the other contenders had shot themselves in the foot, sacrificing national interest on the altar of domestic political red lines. With them divided, distracted, Tharoor intended to finally make India the most powerful nation in the world, and if the price of that was that power and title being wielded within a new democratic federal superstate ruling all of humanity?

That was a price he was willing to pay.

Rajendra Tharoor turned to the milling and confused leaders of the remaining Systems Alliance member nations and projected his voice, loud and clear over all of them. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the decisions of America and China to leave rather than work with us are tragic, but not unexpected. We are still facing an alien invasion, we have an election to organise, and we have a government to construct from scratch. In short, we have a great deal of work ahead of us and it will take ALL of us to make this unified future of humanity viable."

One by one the leaders of the world fell silent, and listened to the Indian Prime Ministers proposal.

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Washington DC – Earth

2112.11.10

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President Goldwater sat calmly in the residence portion of the Whitehouse. He was supposed to be out campaigning, but the polls had changed drastically since that fateful Alliance Executive Council session. They now showed him 15 points clear of his opponent, so he could make this call both without the fear of defeat or the guilt of leaving his surrogates swinging in the breeze.

"President Goldwater." The scrambled phone finally connected.

"President Li." The American President answered as his opposite number, Li Xiuqing, President of the Peoples Republic of China, came on the line.

"Congratulations on your election victory, Mr President." There was no mockery in the Chinese President's tone. Only genuine warmth.

Andrew Goldwater snorted. "I haven't actually won yet, there's still a week to go."

"My advisors have been keeping an eye on the polls. Given your renown ability to spin and the strength of your voting base your victory was likely even before your strong and proud response to that travesty of a session. Now it's a certainty."

President Goldwater didn't want to tempt fate, but it certainly seemed like President Li was correct. Still, it sat badly with him.

He'd made a calculated reaction in the Executive Council Session, knowing what the initial reaction of the American people would be to such a proposal he had simply parroted it. Hoping to sway several of the more non-committed members away from the India/EU/military faction and back into the USA's sphere of influence. He'd been so busy wargaming the best way to preserve American power never stopped to consider if the petitioners actually had a point, if maybe a directly elected parliament was the best way for the Systems Alliance to go.

The American people would have been horrified at the very idea of course, but leaders were supposed to lead people, not just follow them. It would have been an immense challenge but maybe – just maybe – he could have turned the initial tidal wave of anger around and sold the idea of a parliament to them. While at the same time working the other member states to make sure that the seats in that parliament were assigned on economic power, not population, thus neutering India's grab for power and dominance.

He had wargamed the scenario but dismissed it as too volatile to attempt, especially so close to the election. But now, staring down the barrel of the all-in gamble he had actually decided on, it seemed no more of a challenge than what he was about to attempt.

Andrew Goldwater shook his head as he realised that he'd been wool gathering. It had never really been an option. Even if it would have been possible to turn the people's opinion around so close to an election – which was unlikely – trying was far more likely to see him defeated in an electoral college rout before actually working. But even if he had thought it was possible, Rajendra Tharoor had slammed the door firmly shut on that option with his dramatic and public announcement.

His public blitz tactics had rallied his own citizens – and a surprising number of the other member states – but announcing it like that, humiliating the President of the United States on live television? That had burned any bridge that this new Alliance could have tried to tempt the American people across, at least until their anger and indignation died down which could be months. The Alliance's election was in 6 weeks.

"I am glad that you have taken my call Mr President." President Goldwater began cautiously, feeling out his former opponent who now had the potential to be a very powerful ally. "As I see it, we have a mutual interest in either restoring the Systems Alliance to its executive council format or removing it entirely and going forward as independent nation states. Working out our species wide policies as and when required with international summits."

"I am…. Surprised to see you so ready to abandon the Alliance President Goldwater, given how much effort the US put into creating it." President Li's tone was also cautious.

The irony was certainly not lost on Andrew Goldwater as he ground his teeth. "Believe me, so am I. But I'm not willing to see the American people locked out of space because we refuse to kowtow to India. Tharoor is behind this, my cabinet is certain of it, and so am I. Our European allies wouldn't have abandoned us so suddenly, or without warning, if he hadn't made some serious promises. Promises he'll use India's population derived voting block to deliver on when the new parliament is elected."

"What do you suggest Mr President? As your actions are the more legally limited of the two of us, perhaps you would be prepared to offer some insight as to the direction we could take."

President Goldwater ground his teeth so hard that he was worried he would have to visit the dentist to check he hadn't broken any. Li Xiuqing was enjoying this, rubbing his face in the monumental failure of the State Department and the CIA, neither of which saw any sign of this coming from any of the governments involved.

President Li was certainly even less used to being humiliated than he was, the Chinese President had never had to run for an election after all. At least not as an American understood the term election anyway. Now he was lashing out in his humiliation.

It was a human reaction, but it placed a little seed of doubt in President Goldwater's mind. If President Li was willing to let his damaged pride dictate his actions when talking to the President of the United States, an equal he absolutely had to keep onside if they were going to get out of this mess, what was going to happen if the situation in China continued to deteriorate? Would he take a conciliatory line or a harsh one with the protestors? And what would be the outcome?

Shaking his head at the realisation that he had been wool-gathering – yet again – the American President put his own damaged pride to the side and set out his plan to get the best result he thought he could deliver for the American people. "We have three stages we need to work at. Short, medium and long term."

On the desk in front of him were dozens of folders filled with analysis from the state department and the intelligence community, all of which had been poured over to come up with the plan of action. "Stage 1: The short term. We try and strangle this new Alliance in its cradle."

"I like this plan already." President Li commented, amused at the idea of a US President, usually so forceful in their promotion of democracy, planning to smother the creation of the biggest democracy humans had ever seen.

President Goldwater slipped into campaign mode, letting the amusement wash off him as his opponent's slurs did at rallies and on the stump. "We use American media and Chinese cash to fund and give platforms to the anti-alliance faction in all member states that hold elections for this new Constitutional Assembly."

"I doubt we can produce a large enough change of opinion in time, it's only six weeks away." President Li commented dubiously, even with his limited experience of elections he could see that it was a huge challenge.

"That's where your wrong." President Goldwater let a predatory grin slip onto his face, using his vast experience with the democratic electoral machine to point out their best advantage in the upcoming election. "The pro-alliance vote is going to be split between candidates advocating different types of Systems Alliance. The anti-alliance vote can all be rallied around a single candidate in each constituency. A candidate who as their first vote in the Assembly, will call for its immediate dissolution and the restoration of the Executive council."

"America only really has two parties, but Britain has 7, and candidates regularly win seats there with a vote share percentage in the low 30s. With all the different opinions as to what the new Systems Alliance should be, the number of candidates in each seat is going to be closer to 7 than it is to 2."

The silence on the other end of the line indicated that President Li was now giving his American counterpart his full and undivided attention. He knew how close they were to making that work already with the existing anti-alliance sentiment, just a 5 or 6 point swing towards the anti-alliance faction in each country would see swathes of anti-alliance delegates sent to the Constitutional Assembly.

"Medium term?"

"Expertise. They have Europe and Japan on their side, sadly, but there is nothing we can do about that. On the other hand, the number of Indian scientists and engineers in the Alliance's R&D programmes is pathetic, and the number of Russians is worse given all the purges their academic staff get put through on a regular basis."

"We put up whatever resources we need to counter the Alliance's recruiting efforts and appeal to our citizens patriotism. We will gut the Alliance's R&D programmes with the loss of personnel and replicate them as joint endeavours between ourselves, the costs and benefits shared by both of us, keeping us at least level technologically and hopefully pushing us ahead. Despite the Alliance having the advantage of continued access to the Prothean ruins while we are forced to rely on archived data from them."

"And as soon as this war is over, we do the same with the military." President Li jumped in enthusiastically. "All the ships and tanks in the world don't make a single bit of difference if the Alliance doesn't have the personnel to man them. They won't be able to replace the losses with properly trained personnel anymore than they will be able to replace the scientists and engineers quickly. It takes years to train these people."

"We taught the Kuomintang what happens when you send poorly trained troops against proper soldiers, the Alliance will soon be looking down the barrel of the same problem when they see how many of our nationals return home."

"Which brings us to long term. Economic warfare and military build-up." President Goldwater smiled, glad that his counterpart was singing from the same hymn sheet as it were. "We use our current diplomatic and military power to entice the neutral nations into trade deals with us, once we have them hooked we make those trade deals mutually exclusive with Systems Alliance trade deals. They'll have an advantage of course with the off-world trade, but most of humanity is here on Earth, and quantity has a quality all of its own."

President Goldwater smiled as he remembered Americas previous successful uses of that tactic. "The Anaconda plan brought down the Confederate States of America, it brought down the Soviet Union. It WILL bring down the Systems Alliance."

"My own military has been working on surface to orbit weapons for some time." President Li revealed. "In the spirit of our new co-operation I will make it a joint project with you. Once we have ironed out the kinks and got them into production, well, when those Alliance fools lose orbital supremacy, they'll be left only with their armies here on Earth. Facing down the two most powerful human nations in existence. They'll surrender and let us back into space, or we'll simply force the issue."

A shiver came over President Goldwater at the thought of a conflict on that scale, a conflict that had the potential to easily escalate into world war three. But he took comfort in the knowledge that it was years away and that the Systems Alliance would almost certainly capitulate to their diplomatic demands long before then.

When they could no longer rely on orbital support to beef up the hitting power of their vastly numerically and technologically inferior member state armies, they wouldn't really have a choice. Going to war with the USA and China in such circumstances would be suicide.

"I will begin working on a list of anti-alliance parties that the Peoples Republic can fund in all of the states that are holding Constitutional Assembly elections." President Li spoke quickly, sounding confident. Now that they had a viable course of action to either smother the Alliance Parliament at birth or bypass the Alliance entirely he was eager to get started.

"I'll call in all of my speechwriting staff." President Goldwater replied. "There will be no rest for them even after I'm re-elected next week. We have another election to win, spread across half the globe and with only six weeks to do it."

Both Presidents had their doubts, but both also knew that it was too late now. They had decided on all-in gambles to maintain the power and influence of their people and thus they were committed to the course. They had to regain control of the Systems Alliance, bypass it entirely, or fail in the attempt. They and their opposite numbers in the Alliance had slammed the doors shut on everything else.

---

New Delhi – Earth

2112.11.10

---

Prime Minister Rajendra Tharoor sat rubbing his eyes tiredly in the emergency conference room. Present – via video link – were the other leaders of the Systems Alliance member nations. "Next crisis."

"The loss of the Americans continues to cause my people great concern." The Japanese PM cut in. "Are we sure that there is no way to bring them back? Does their Congress not need to authorise their withdrawal from the Alliance?"

"No." The Canadian PM's answer was short and to the point. "The US Constitution requires that any international treaty signed by the President must be ratified by a supermajority of Congress. It specifically DOES NOT require that Congress ratify a President's decision to LEAVE an international treaty or organisation. It's a trap that most people who have only superficial knowledge of the US Constitution fall into."

"Loopholes are everywhere in a written Constitution if you go looking for them." The Turkish PM muttered. "They make great fodder for political thrillers, but bloody awkward governance when someone exploits a loophole most of your population would have sworn blind wasn't there."

"The whole point is moot." Mexico's President intervened in frustration. "The USA's participation in international organisations that they don't have total control over has been the same throughout their entire history. Don't. They only participated in the Systems Alliance because they created it. Now we are transitioning to a democratic system based on population and their delegates could be outvoted in Parliament by India alone, they won't touch it with a bargepole."

Left unmentioned was the back-channel proposal from an American senator that they could see their way to re-entering the Alliance and sending delegates to the Constitutional Assembly. If its membership was decided by the economic power of the constituent nations rather than their population. The outrage of the national leaders over the one dollar, one vote proposal was intense and had quickly decided their response.

Everyone deserved an equal say in their government, so the Constitutional Assembly would be elected on the same basis that many of their governments already were. One person, one vote.

"Unfortunately correct." France's President interjected. Our support in the US Congress is about the same as our support in the US in general, about 32%. A supermajority with 8% to spare is rallying behind President Goldwater which means the Americans are lost to us for the foreseeable future."

Japan's PM spoke up again. "With the Americans truly lost to us, it may be very difficult for me to get the legislation authorising our participation in the elections for the Constitutional Assembly passed. Asking a people to join a newly created federal superstate with no warning is a large challenge."

"Point your members of parliament towards the baying mobs of voters outside." The Argentinian President groaned. "That should give them sufficient motivation. It worked for all the rest of us."

"Yes." The Spanish PM noted angrily. "But it's given others an opening we had hoped to avoid. The colonies all being on our side is fully expected, they're all afraid that they will be the next one to be sacrificed to aliens if we keep the squabbling Executive Council. All except the American and Chinese colonies are offering their full and unconditional support in politics, money, materials and workforce. Provided they are included in the Constitutional Assembly as independent states."

"They were always semi-independent. All of our colonies were going to break away from each of us at some point. It might as well be now, without bloodshed, rather than us trying to hold on and fight insurrection after insurrection until eventually they win. All of us have been on one side or the other of that fight, I don't think it's one any of us want to revisit again." Prime Minister Tharoor stared at Prime Minister Cable as he spoke. Though the temperature dropped, all of the grumbling stopped.

The simple fact was that with the loss of the Americans and the Chinese the world economy was in total chaos and all of them, homelands and colonies alike, had to hang together. Or else they would all be hung separately. The loss of 35% of the Alliance budget had been bad enough, they couldn't allow any disruption to the space-based trade that was the lifeblood of the Alliance. It would doom all of them.

"It's strange though." The Polish PM spoke up. "How strongly our populations have supported this move, how strongly they seem to believe that there will be a turian fleet overhead and they will all be slaves unless they pressure their MPs or Congressmen into passing the Constitutional Assembly Election legislation. I wonder what could possibly have caused it?" The Polish MP glared forcefully as he spoke, the question was purely rhetorical. He knew the answer to it, they all did.

President Ivanov of Russia simply smiled enigmatically at the Polish PM's glare. "You were all happy to use the results. Westerners, you've got no stomach for steering the people when democracy needs a firm hand on the wheel. In Russia, we know what needs to be done. It is like sausages, just enjoy the results. Never ask how it was made."

Collectively they let the comment slide, because President Ivanov was right. The skill of the Moscow public perception manipulation machine was unmatched, and it had been extremely useful. Getting what would otherwise have been knife edge legislature votes authorising their leader's decisions in the council chamber passed with a bit of breathing room.

"I'll get it passed." Japan's PM whispered quietly. Japan was the last country to ratify, once they had done so. The election campaign could begin.

"Next Crisis?" PM Tharoor asked.

"How about the hundreds of lawsuits piling up in the courts at all the international laws we've broken?" The Italian PM spoke up.

"Yes, because creating a federal superstate to unify humanity is something that international law is perfectly designed to deal with." The German Chancellor practically yelled exasperatedly. "How long can we keep them tied up in delaying actions and outright stalling?"

"Months."

"Do it, the election is in 6 weeks. By the time the first case is even heard it will be too late for them to do anything about it."

"Not entirely true, but as we will be one nation in space any violations of international law will be Earth bound only. Here we will have the economic and political power to buy off, ignore, or pressure the plaintiffs into withdrawing their lawsuits. Remember everyone. Sausages." President Ivanov looked like he was having the most fun he had had in weeks, which was a stark contrast to the rest of them."

"Fine, why not? We'd never get the Constitutional Assembly together this century if we tried to obey all the international law that might possibly be applicable anyway. Next Crisis?"

"No non-Systems Alliance member state is allowed to use the relays. As such this leaves us in a bit of a pickle with the American and Chinese colonies." The President of Brazil lay out their next problem.

"Less than you'd think." The Thai PM smiled. "Shanxi didn't like being left to die and Guangxi and Elysium feel their sister colony's pain. Their willing to secede from the Peoples Republic of China, at once. Provided they can send their delegates to the Constitutional Assembly as one nation. The Celestial Peoples Republic. They expect the Chinese station colonies to fall in line very quickly."

Silence fell as they all collectively pondered the proposal before the Moroccan PM spoke up. "It means we're only going to have to institute a blockade of 2 relays instead of 5. I say we go for it."

"Agreed. But what about the American colonies, Destiny and Freedom? They're not going to abandon their mother country, at least not any time soon." New Zealand's PM raised concerns.

"Our decision at the start of the Alliance was clear, and it was even American instigated. No non-Alliance member state can use the relays. We have only one option, as my Moroccan counterpart said. We blockade the secondary relays in those clusters and do not allow any American shipping through, nor any other shipping heading for Destiny or Freedom. They can trade with the other planets in their clusters, but not with each other, and certainly not with the USA here on Earth."

"Oh, the Americans are going to LOVE that!"

"Thanks to the Treaty of Mars the don't have a space going navy to force the issue in orbit. And here on Earth their ICBMs and submarine launched nukes are useless given the interception efficiencies of the new guardian point defence arrays. After all, it doesn't matter how deadly the warhead is if you can intercept the missile well short of its target. As long as we keep frigates with their guardian arrays warmed up in an interception net across all terrestrial Alliance member states airspace, we will be immune to a nuclear first strike and they would never risk the casualties of a conventional war. I believe the appropriate phrase is 'bite me'." The Australian PM was blunt and to the point.

"Well the diplomatic fall out from that will be a sight to behold, but I don't see a way around it. Next crisis?"

"The ships. Several warships with majority Chinese or American crews are already refusing orders. Its far less than it could be as so many ships have totally mixed crews, but still. It's concerning." Iran's President had a hint of fear in his voice. "As the American and Chinese constitutions forbid their citizens serving in foreign military's we could lose a lot of manpower."

"Offer direct Alliance citizenship to all of them, if they don't take it let them head home, but keep the ships. Make sure to let the Chinese know that citizenship of the Celestial Peoples Republic is an option. That might get a lot more than we think to stay with us." The South African PM set out their best option.

"And the ships refusing orders?"

"Deny them relay travel and resupply. Eventually they'll surrender and be sent home, leaving us the ship. Or they'll destroy the ship, hand themselves in, and be sent home as we can't afford the PR disaster of imprisoning them. Or they'll turn pirate, in which case we can hunt them down with a clear conscience." Nigeria's PM spoke coldly, but he spoke sense.

"Alright. At least Admiral Drescher's fleet is still in enemy territory. I don't think that any of the ships there will cause trouble when battle may occur at any moment. So, we have some time before this habit of ships refusing orders hits the Grand Fleet."

"Can we hide it from them?"

"You want to hide this from a fleet that well-armed? Even if most of their crews are mixed?"

"Fair point."

"Treat them fairly and the most we'll probably get from the American and Chinese dominated ships are some destroyed ships and sailors to get home. Try and hide it from them and we may have a shooting mutiny."

"Alright. Fine. Right, next crisis." Rajendra Tharoor yawned but immediately sprang alert as a security cleared aid barged in.

"Prime Minister, its Admiral Drescher. She's engaged the Asari."

---

Codex Entry: The Fate of the Peoples Republic of China

(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)

---

By the time of the First Contact war the human nation state known as China had technically been engaged in civil war for nearly 200 years.

Following the end of its rule by an absolute monarch (known as the Emperor of China) in 1912 CE, the nation state could not agree on a new political system to replace the Imperial one. While in theory there was a unified government, in practice China fell apart into squabbling states under warlords. These would gradually recoalesce through diplomacy and war until the human conflict known as the Second World War caused all sides to unite in opposition to the invading Japanese Empire.

Following the war, the two remaining sides from the waring states period were the Republic of China (Nationalists) and the Peoples Republic of China (Communists). Almost as soon as the war was declared over the Nationalists – who controlled most of China – began a major offensive against the Communists. Forcing them back with heavy casualties and leaving them on the verge of defeat as their shattered armies were forced to retreat – hot pursued by Nationalist forces – with no chance to regroup and reorganise.

However, the United States of America wished for a coalition government in China, rather than more civil war. They dispatched General Marshall to negotiate it in December 1945 CE.

The talks were an utter disaster. Neither side wished to engage in them, but the USA was supplying a great deal of weapons, equipment and money to the Nationalists and suspended this aid to force the Nationalists to the negotiating table. (This embargo would last until 1947 CE in an attempt to force the talks to resume. The embargo ended as the civil war turned against the Nationalists, who were by far the American's preferred Chinese government. But by then their resumption was too little, too late.)

Pleased with anything that halted the devastating Republic of China advance, the Communists also agreed to attend the talks. Historians remain divided whether that decision to attend was made in good faith, or as a cynical ploy to gain time to regroup and prepare a new offensive regardless of what was negotiated.

The negotiations almost immediately stalled on both sides intransigence and soon broke down. In June 1946 CE the civil war resumed. This time however, the Communists – now rested, reorganised and rearmed – gained the initiative.

By 1949 CE the Communists had conquered northern China and encircled and destroyed 144 divisions of the Nationalist army, consisting of over 1.54 million veteran troops. This effectively ripped the backbone out of the Nationalist army, leaving them with only outnumbered – poorly trained – conscripts to face the battle-hardened Peoples Liberation Army.

The Soviet Union also wished for a coalition government in China, but they had far less success restraining the Communists than the USA had had restraining the Nationalists. Defying orders from Stalin, the Communists chased the shattered Nationalists into southern China.

The Nationalists continued to fall back and back, watching first their formal capital Nanking fall to the PLA advance, before being chased out of their temporary capital in Chongqing which even the Japanese had never manged. Chased relentlessly they fled across China until they were forced to run to the final province under their control, the island of Taiwan. There they were protected from invasion by the USA's 7th fleet. The Republic of China would stay confined to that island for the next 200 years, while the Peoples Republic of China controlled the mainland and was effectively the only China to the rest of the world.

The thing others must take into account with the collapse of the Chinese Imperial Dynasty and the Chinese Civil war is the importance of the Mandate of Heaven. The idea, unique to Chinese culture, that there is only one legitimate ruler of the nation. Revolts and natural disasters indicate that the current ruler has lost the Mandate of Heaven, and thus the people are permitted to rebel and compete to replace them. Whoever can bring order to the chaos has the favour of the gods, they have taken the Mandate of Heaven from the existing rulers and the peoples loyalty should transfer to them. They and their heirs will rule China, unless they in turn lose the Mandate of Heaven.

The specific spiritual nature of the Mandate fell out of favour with the fall of the final Imperial Dynasty, but the political idea that the government only deserved to hold power as long as it guarantees prosperity, order and security persists. It was this cultural belief of the Chinese people that had led to President Li being so unwilling to have a Chinese colony liberated by non-alliance forces. He felt that it would damage the Chinese Communist Party's claim to the Mandate of Heaven. Unfortunately, the actions he took intending to avoid this turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The utter humiliation of the Peoples Republic of China on the world stage, their expulsion from the Systems Alliance, and the open revolt and secession of their three off world colonies to form the Celestial Peoples Republic convinced the Chinese people that the Chinese Communist Party had lost the Mandate of Heaven. The riots already taking place across China became open revolts.

For more than a year the Peoples Liberation Army was able to keep a lid on things, rushing from province to province, city to city, crushing revolt after revolt. But the damage to the Chinese economy from all of this unrest only made the situation worse, fed by the economic collapse and the harsh suppression methods used by the PLA each revolt was larger than the last. It was clear to everyone watching around the globe that something would have to give.

Finally, in 2114 CE, a year and a half after China left the Alliance, the first domino fell. With much of the PLA withdrawn to the interior of China to maintain order, the Muslim majority province of Xinjiang – which had been experiencing a violent separatist movement for the last century following a deliberate Han Chinese settlement programme to dilute the indigenous culture – finally overwhelmed the remaining Peoples Liberation Army units in the province.

The breakaway province immediately declared themselves the free and independent nation state of Turkistan.

Any last shreds of doubt that the Peoples Republic of China had lost the Mandate of Heaven were blown away with the secession of Xinjiang, the world watched, expecting a swift and brutal reconquest of the breakaway province. But the Peoples Liberation Army had finally been stretched beyond its limits.

The Chinese government tried to free up PLA units to go and smash this new breakaway state, but the news of its secession caused the revolts in the Chinese heartlands to become full scale rebellions. Totally occupied with maintaining order in the Chinese heartlands the Peoples Republic had little choice but to abandon Xinjiang for the foreseeable future, de-facto recognising the state of Turkistan.

When they realised China was unable to reclaim its breakaway Muslim province, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan moved quickly to aid their religious brethren and signed a mutual defence and development aid package with Turkistan, killing the hopes of the Chinese government of ever reclaiming it.

Seeing the success of their northern neighbour in breaking free, the province of Tibet – which had been vassalized under threat of force in 1951 CE and then fully annexed by force following a failed attempt at independence in 1959 CE – decided the time was ripe for another attempt.

With secret supplies of money, equipment and weapons from India, the Tibetans overwhelmed and chased out the occupying Peoples Liberation Army forces in 2115 CE. The re-established Kingdom of Tibet quickly signed mutual defence and development aid treaties with its powerful southern neighbour, the Republic of India.

The expulsion of Han Chinese from the Kingdom would be a great source of diplomatic stress for the new state. As, like Xinjiang, they had been deliberately settled in Tibetan lands by the Chinese government to overwhelm the local Tibetan culture, the new Kingdom understandably wanted them gone. However the Republic of India was unwilling to support a country effectively committing genocide by expelling so many civilians into the warzone that had engulphed the whole of China outside of the PLA strongpoints.

A compromise was reached, and the expelled Han Chinese were housed in the now empty Tibetan refugee camps in northern India. An irony that was not lost on them.

By now the Peoples Republic of China was in no state to do anything about Tibet regaining its independence or about the new Kingdom expelling the Han Chinese that they had colonised the area with. Beset by rebels on all sides they were struggling just to survive as the government of China's heartlands. However, the situation was about to get worse for them.

The rebel forces across China were becoming victims of their own success, they were now beginning to fight each other as well as the Peoples Liberation Army as they came into contact with each other more and more. Hoping to take advantage of this, the PLA began to withdraw from the south west of China.

The plan was that the rebels would suddenly find themselves with no unifying outside enemy and would turn on each other instead. Exhausting themselves against each other, before collapsing when the Peoples Liberation Army – rested and reorganised – swept in and defeated the exhausted rebel remnants. This had the added benefit of freeing up PLA units for pacification duties in the north enabling the Chinese government to crush all opposition there while the southern rebels fought amongst themselves.

Human military experts are divided on whether this strategy would have worked without outside interference. But the argument is academic because that interference did come, and it turned the PLA's plan into a catastrophic error.

Deciding it was now or never, in June 2116 CE the Taiwanese army stormed ashore in Hong Kong, Macau and the island province of Hainan. Offered heroes welcomes in the last province captured by the communists in the civil war (Hainan) and the former western colonies who were having their western altered culture suppressed by the implacable demands for conformity (Hong Kong and Macau) the Taiwanese army quickly advanced upriver and captured the city of Guangzhou. Within a month they had captured the entire province of Guangdong.

Now answering only to its official name of the Republic of China, the former Taiwanese (now Nationalist) army halted to rest and regroup while the politicians talked to the rebels. In a large meeting in Hong Kong, known as the Great Consensus, the Taiwanese leaders used every trick in the book to unite the rebels behind the resurgent Republic of China. Constantly referencing the last time China had descended into waring states and the communist takeover that had followed.

Eventually the rebels agreed the various groups swore allegiance to the Republic of China in return for money, weapons, equipment, and more provincial autonomy in the Republic than the Peoples Republic had ever allowed.

Only the rebels of Yunnan refused to recognise the Republic of China as their legitimate rulers. When they gained full control of the province in late 2116 CE and declared the Yunnan Empire, the reforming Republic of China/Taiwanese government decided to let them go. Calculating that trying to force them back into China militarily would upset the delicate alliance between themselves, the rebel forces, and the public opinion of the outside world.

The war in the south would continue for another three years as the disparate rebel groups and Taiwanese army slowly forged themselves into one militarily. The political systems slowly took shape as the Republican government, used to only administering a single province, slowly extended its authority into rebel held areas across the south of China.

Finally, political and militarily one nation, the former rebel and Taiwanese forces began a massive offensive all along the front line and the Republic Army pushed north. 170 years after they had been chased out, Nationalist forces entered Nanjing and the government of the Republic of China returned to its capital.

With the return of the government of the Republic of China to its capital in Nanjing in 2119 CE, most of the Chinese population decided that they had successfully taken the Mandate of Heaven from the Chinese Communist Party. Everywhere support for the Peoples Republic of China and the Peoples Liberation Army collapsed. Zhengzhou, Qingdou, and other cities fell quickly as the Nationalist army swept north.

With the fall of Baoding, and under pressure from Russia, the province of Outer Mongolia seceded from the Peoples Republic and joined with Mongolia. The government in Beijing barely had time to notice as within three months Nationalist forces took the city, and the Peoples Republic of China ceased to exist.

The shattered remnants of the Peoples Liberation Army fled into Manchuria, but unlike when they had chased the shattered nationalist armies, there was no island province for them to flee to. Various parts made final stands at Harbin and at Changchun. But with the crushing of the final PLA units at Dalian in July 2120 CE, The Republic of China was recognised by the entire world as the sole and undisputed ruler of China. 174 years after it began, the Chinese Civil War finally ended.

Upon their victory, the Republic of China asked to join the Systems Alliance and they became a member state in 2121 CE, they were followed by the Kingdom of Tibet 2124 CE. Turkistan remains as stable and open state, trading freely with the world, but they decided against Alliance membership.

The Empire of Yunnan has also never joined the Alliance, they remain a happily isolationist state interacting with the rest of the world as little as possible.

To the shock of many humans, relations between the Republic of China and the Celestial Peoples Republic have been surprisingly warm and continue to be so to this day.

*A map showing this in more detail has been added to my tumblr. thefourthcouncilrace dot tumblr dot com

---

Codex Entry: The Fate of the United States of America

(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)

---

It is a matter of fierce debate whether the USA could have wrestled control of the Systems Alliance back if China had not descended into civil war. Together they might well have been able to do so. Alone, America had only a very small chance, and it was not to be.

When the USA walked out of the Systems Alliance, much like when the American War of Independence began, 1/3rd of the American population were for the Alliance, 1/3rd were against it and 1/3rd were undecided. General Washington and the others had successfully rallied this last third to their side and defeated Britain. Now the Pro and Anti-Alliance political forces in America were trying to do the same.

The early colonisation of the Solar System had proceeded relatively peacefully, though each nation maintained their own warships to defend their colonies. The discovery of the Martian ruins and the 6-minute War changed everything. Facing down an unknown enemy, one that may wish to destroy all mankind, was a great galvanising force to unify. The last thing any military wanted was to be part of an awful coalition of various member states navy's. Trying to merge together different technology, command structures, training standards and traditions in the face of an alien attack.

The resistance against unification was strong and were it not for the 6-Minute War it might have succeeded. However, the shock following the events of the 5th of March 2085 provided incentive required for the unification side to win out. The Treaty of Mars was signed in 2086 CE.

With the restriction of a nation's future space forces to orbital guard cutters and the – official – disbanding of all existing space navies, the Treaty of Mars ensured that only one human political body was permitted to build and crew warships. The Systems Alliance.

Most historians agree that the only reason that America and China agreed to this was that they never even considered that they might lose control of the Alliance. Much like any country at the peak of their power throughout history, the thought of their decline was an anathema and not to be contemplated.

Regardless, the Treaty of Mars was signed in 2086 CE, which meant that when the USA walked away from the Alliance in 2112 CE they were left with only a handful handful of orbital guard cutters in their space force with which to face down the entire Systems Alliance Navy.

Several raiding ships that caused major problems across the Alliance shipping lanes in these early years are believed to have been US space force warships, illegally constructed and operated in violation of the Treaty of Mars, but there was never any proof of these suspicions. Whether they were true or not, the raiders were the extent of the new Systems Alliance's interstellar problems. The conspiracy theories that the Americans and Chinese had each built and operated an entire battle fleet in violation of the Treaty of Mars was proved to be nonsense.

On Earth it was a different story. Though their nuclear arsenal had been rendered useless as the missiles used to deliver them were larger, slower and more vulnerable than the torpedoes Alliance frigates guardian arrays were designed to shoot down, the US army, the US navy and the US air force were still the most advanced and powerful on the planet.

The US army reacted the worst to the withdrawal from the Alliance. America's home territories had not been invaded since the British capture of Washington DC along with the British/Canadian capture of Wisconsin advance into Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and Maine in the war of 1812.

Now, suddenly, they had a potentially hostile multi nation alliance on their huge, unsecured land borders to the north and south. It was fair to say that the Generals were not pleased as they franticly dusted off pre WW2 plans for the defence of America from an attack from Canada or Mexico.

The Air force was largely indifferent, but the navy was very pleased. The 10 Carrier groups of the US navy were almost immediately put to work, projecting American power to non-Alliance states and shadowing Alliance member states carrier groups.

They would be used extensively by the state department as leverage in trade negotiations, both as proof of American power to non-Alliance states and as blockading forces. Cutting off trade at several points in the USA/Alliance cold war.

When President Goldwater was elected for a second term – with an increased majority in both the House and Senate – a few weeks after that fateful Alliance Executive Council session, barely any in the anti-alliance faction believed that that would be their high point.

The collapse of China in early 2114 CE showed the cracks in that viewpoint, the midterms in late 2114 CE shook it to its core.

Over and over anti-Alliance fanatics took to the airwaves and to social media, denouncing the new Systems Alliance as a bureaucratic monster that would soon collapse under its own weight and internal contradictions. A tyrannical assault on freedom that must be resisted at all costs.

More reasonable anti-Alliance politicians, led by President Goldwater, thundered similar – though less vehement – rhetoric, while claiming that 'they need us more than we need them.' This, they argued, was why the Systems Alliance would allow them back into space and end the blockade of Destiny and Freedom.

It was this idea, that the Alliance needed the USA more than the USA needed the Alliance, that swayed so many of the swing third of the American population behind President Goldwater during his re-election campaign. If China hadn't descended into civil war, it might even have been true.

As it was, the single market and customs union forming between the Systems Alliance member states caused trade between them to explode. Chasing this massive growth in a union of countries that contained all but 2 of the top 20 world economies and all interstellar trade, more and more states negotiated trade deals with the Systems Alliance.

The Alliance's economy grew stronger and stronger until, eventually, it was strong enough to dictate that a trade deal for access to the Alliance single market would be mutually exclusive with a trade deal with the USA.

It was the developing single market and customs union between the Alliance members that really began to put the screws on the US economy. If the 2114 CE midterms shook the 'they need us more than we need them' attitude, the 2116 CE presidential election shattered it.

It almost didn't matter which party won the Whitehouse. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were wracked with internal divisions, pro and anti-Alliance members fighting for control of each party.

What mattered was the massive gains made in the Republican and Democratic primaries, and then in the House and Senate, by pro-Alliance representatives. The American economy was under immense stress by this point and had tipped into a full recession.

Compared to the growing economy of the Systems Alliance, fuelled in no small part by the vast array of resources pouring in from its interstellar colonies, the swing third of the American population was clearly beginning to swing towards the Alliance.

The extremist anti-Alliance politicians, of which the new President was one, upped their rhetoric. Filling the airwaves with denunciation of the cancerous and tyrannical Systems Alliance, suppressing its member states individual cultures in a mass indoctrination and homogenisation programme.

It was the midterms of 2118 CE that brought things to a head. For the first time, pro-Alliance delegates gained a majority in the US House of Representatives. Though they were still far off from the Senate supermajority needed to ratify entry into the Systems Alliance, their continuing growth of support and the accelerating downward trend of the US economy made the gaining of that supermajority, and the Whitehouse, almost inevitable.

The coming storm began slowly, quietly. Bricks through windows, arson attacks on businesses with pro-Alliance views. Then came the formation of the Patriot Brigades, groups of vigilantes who took it upon themselves to break up any pro-Alliance meeting and beat up any pro-Alliance speaker. Those with a love of history began to compare it to the worst parts of the Civil Rights era, where legitimate and peaceful meeting and demonstrations were broken up by force by their political opponents.

Censorship gradually began to creep into public life. One by one, pro-Alliance broadcasters were shut down by the federal government on any pretext they could find that wouldn't land them in the Supreme Court.

Pro-Alliance demonstrations flared up in response to the continuing actions of the patriot brigades. The police were sent in to use the full force of the law on the demonstrators, felony rioting charges saw hundreds of protesters locked up on 60 year sentences while the members of the patriot brigades continued to break up pro-Alliance rallies with impunity.

Recognising how dangerous the situation had become former President Andrew Goldwater re-entered public life. Supported by several other anti-Alliance politicians, he tried to calm the unrest. Publicly repudiating his previous stances, he tried to keep everyone together by telling America that the Systems Alliance hadn't turned out as badly as he had feared, and that if the pro-Alliance supporters gained their supermajority, it wasn't what he wanted, but it wouldn't be the end of the world, or the end of the United States.

It was a brave and principled stance and for putting the unity of the USA before his personal beliefs, Andrew Goldwater is commonly believed to be the last true President of the United States. Unfortunately, his efforts were too late. Like so many politicians before him in countries around the world, former President Goldwater learned that once you make a people hate something, it's almost impossible to get them to stop hating it.

The patriot brigades upped their activities, breaking up political rallies of any candidate of any party that held pro-Alliance views as the primaries for the 2120 CE presidential election got underway.

Finally, the pro-Alliance factions had been pushed too far. Abandoned by the police they began fighting back when the patriot brigades came to break up their rallies. So, the patriot brigades brought knives to the rallies, and then they brought guns.

Across the Alliance the fights descended into running gun battles which completely overwhelmed the police.

It was this that finally tipped things over the edge. Siding with the patriot brigades, who's views he shared and who formed a significant chunk of his voting base, President Alexander Johnson declared a state of emergency. The most pro-Alliance areas of Maryland and Virginia were declared areas 'In rebellion against the Union' and habaes corpus was suspended for their inhabitants by executive order.

The US army was sent in to support the police, arresting anyone suspected of pro-Alliance sympathies and sending them to internment camps similar to those used to house any American of Japanese descent during the human conflict known as World War Two.

The population of the United States exploded into rage. Opponents screamed that the President wasn't allowed to do this, that the Constitution and the separation of powers prevented him. The Supreme Court agreed and declared President Johnson's actions illegal.

President Johnson and his supporters countered those charges by announcing that they didn't have to follow the Supreme Court's decisions. They used the constitutional legal argument of 'departmentalism' – where in it is for each branch of the federal government to decide for itself what the limits of the Constitution are as they apply to that branch's powers – to state that the judicial branch could not force the executive branch to enforce its decisions if the executive branch disagreed with them.

According to President Johnson and his supporters, the fact that most presidents HAD enforced the Supreme Court's decisions didn't mean that they were OBLIGATED to enforce them. As President Lincoln had ignored the Supreme Court ruling that his suspension of habaes corpus in areas in rebellion against the Union was unconstitutional, so President Johnson argued that he was entitled to do the same.

This departmentalism constitutional argument could be traced back to Thomas Jefferson, and the fact that so few Americans had even heard of such a long-standing interpretation of constitutional law showed how valid it was. Before President Johnson had used it, the last time it had even been mentioned was when it was used to explain presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's 2011 CE claim that he could order the USA's national security agencies to ignore the Supreme Court's rulings on matters of national security.

Regardless it provided President Johnson with a legal fig leaf. The roundups in Maryland and Virginia continued and expanded into pro-Alliance areas of Delaware and West Virginia.

The expansion of the roundups was the final straw. Across the United States pro-Alliance citizens fled to pro-Alliance states, fearing that they would soon be rounded up otherwise. Anti-Alliance citizens fled to anti-Alliance states, either fearing they would be killed in the crossfire when the military came to round up their pro Alliance neighbours, or so they could join the patriot brigades in routing out the traitors.

Away from the continental United States however, the impact of the roundups and the impotence of the Supreme Court was even more profound. Watching in horror at the destruction of the Constitution, and how no one seemed to be willing or capable of stopping it, the colonies of Destiny and Freedom both declared independence from the USA.

Stating that they would keep the principles of the US Constitution alive, even when their Earthbound mother country did not, the newly independent worlds would both join the Systems Alliance as individual nation states in 2120 CE.

Inspired by the example set by Destiny and Freedom; Alaska and Hawaii, both states with pro-Alliance supermajority's, seceded from the United States of America.

Alaska joined with Canada, becoming that nations 11th province, while Hawaii declared the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Seizing their chance to become fully fledged members of a country rather than effective colonies, Puerto Rico, Guam and other Pacific and Atlantic island territories of the USA would join the Kingdom of Hawaii in the coming weeks.

For the first time since 1861 CE states had seceded from the United States of America, but this time they had an advantage that was not present last time. International protection.

As the situation had deteriorated the Systems Alliance had faced increased calls to step in and calm the fighting, especially if it descended into civil war. Failing to intervene led to humanitarian catastrophes and war crimes such as the Rwandan Genocide and the Rohingya Expulsion. Calls of; Neutrality always benefits the aggressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented, were heard across the Alliance as the situation in America and China continued to deteriorate.

But for every successful intervention such as Kosovo and Mali there were failed ones such as Iraq. A general rule seemed to apply, the larger and more developed the country descending into civil war, the less likely an interventions chance of success was. The likelihood of being caught in a multi way battle, lasting decades, that ended with the intervening powers as a universally hated occupying force increased proportionally as well.

The Alliance refused all calls to intervene. Calculating that given the size and development of the countries involved, the chance of accidentally starting world war three was too great. They did however, declare the Kingdom of Hawaii a Systems Alliance Protectorate as soon as they seceded. Stating that any attempt to take away the right to self-determination by its inhabitants would be an act of war.

The two US navy carrier groups, dispatched to force Hawaii back into the United States by force of arms were turned back, the US government was unwilling to engage the Alliance in open warfare given their current internal problems. The Kingdom of Hawaii would join the Systems Alliance in 2120 CE along with Destiny and Freedom.

Following this 'betrayal' by their colonies and two States, the anti-Alliance faction descended into rage. They demanded that the States be ordered to use their National Guards to round up any pro-Alliance sympathisers to prevent any further secessions and maintain the territorial integrity of the continental United States. President Johnson, humiliated by such a 'betrayal' of both the United States and the political faction he represented, federalised all 48 remaining National Guards and happily gave the order to intern anyone suspected of pro-Alliance sympathies across the entire United States.

The state of Texas had always had friendly rivalry with the federal government. In the lone star State, the pro and anti-Alliance factions were much more finely balanced than in Hawaii or Alaska, and there was no clear majority either for or against the Alliance. But the one thing that virtually all Texans could agree was totally unacceptable, was the federal government telling them that they had to round up their fellow Texans.

Denouncing President Johnson for ordering it, and the Supreme Court and the Congress for being powerless to stop him. Texas announced that it was seceding from the United States and was now the Republic of Texas. They would figure out if they wanted to join the Systems Alliance on their own, with no patriot brigades and no mass roundups.

With the loss of another state of the Union, Congress impeached President Johnson. As he had with the Supreme Court, President Johnson simply ignored them. As so many republics had found throughout human history; a constitution is just ink on a page. What gives it its power is the amount of faith and trust that its population places in it, and how far they are prepared to go to defend it.

Politicians had attacked the US Constitution for so long, refusing to carry out its mandated duties – such as ensuring that only Congress could declare war – that the people of the United States had lost faith in their Constitution. Like the Supreme Court before it, Congress found itself powerless before a President that simply ignored them impeaching him, and a military that remained loyal to the President.

President Johnsons rage at Texas's secession was biblical. Just as when Hungary and Czechoslovakia had tried to leave the Soviet Union (in 1956 CE and 1968 CE respectively) he immediately ordered the army to bring Texas back into the United States by force. The US army began to move south as the US air force began to engage the Texas Air National Guard in battle. Seeing the writing on the wall and the dictatorship that was forming, Oklahoma and New Mexico seceded from the USA and joined the Republic of Texas, adding their own Air National Guards to the growing battle.

The Republic of Texas spent the following years in respectful discussion as to which way they wished to take their new nation. Eventually they came to a decision, and it was to remain fully independent. The Republic of Texas would never join the Alliance, but to this day they remain a free and democratic nation, with a booming economy and good relations with the Alliance. Happily remaining planet bound in return for full independence.

At the same time as Oklahoma and New Mexico were joining the Republic of Texas, heavily pro-Alliance California also saw the writing on the wall and the dictatorship that was forming with the utter failure of the last check and balance; impeachment. Following the example of Texas, California announced that they were seceding from the USA to form the California Republic. Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona would join the California Republic over the coming weeks. Joining the Systems Alliance in 2123 CE the California Republic soon became one of the economic powerhouses of the Systems Alliance.

With the growing air battle and ordered ground invasion of the Republic of Texas, and the secession of the California Republic, the United States Military had finally had enough. The President was their Commander in Chief and they had all sworn an oath of loyalty to him as well as to the Constitution, but he had ignored the Supreme Court ordering him to stop, he had ignored the Congress impeaching him, and he had ignored the warnings of the State governors to such an extent that the United States of America currently consisted of only 40 states.

Pushed too far, the mid ranking generals committed mutiny against the Joint Chiefs, and the other high ranking generals that had supported President Johnson as he trampled all over the both the Constitution and the two other branches of the government.

The military returned to protect the states that most of them were from, the states that had always taken a special pride in military service. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky were soon occupied by the majority of the former US military in a military junta known as the Union of Steel.

The generals of the Union of Steel would impose order through an authoritarian police state form of government, but they always intended to return to civilian rule. Gradually they loosened their grip as the hatred whipped up by President Johnson and the patriot brigades faded over time. The Union of Steel returned to civilian rule in 2146 CE and joined the Systems Alliance later that year.

It is a matter of regret for many humans that there is no video footage of President Johnson being told he had to leave the Whitehouse and Washington DC as the former US military closed in. Whatever reasons the Generals had for letting him go were never released to the public, but the Union of Steel's Airforce made no attempt to shoot down Air Force One as President Johnson fled the former capital of the United States.

The news awaiting President Johnson when he landed in heavily anti-Alliance Wyoming continued to get worse.

Fearing that the Union of Steel would continue to push north, the New England States had decided to beat them to it by severing themselves from President Johnson and the USA, removing any temptation the Generals had to add them to their junta.

Announcing something that had been under discussion with increasing seriousness as the situation continued to deteriorate, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine declared themselves the United States of New England. Stating that the new USNE had nothing to fear from them, the Union of Steel was among the first to offer recognition and their protection.

The United States of New England graciously accepted, while working frantically to strengthen their National Guard units that had combined to form the new USNE military. Over the coming years the new union would peacefully sort out its position with regards to the Systems Alliance before finally applying for membership in the Alliance along with the Union of Steel in 2146 CE.

In Wyoming, President Johnson declared Cheyenne the new capital of the United States and took over the Wyoming governor's mansion as the new Whitehouse. Though, due to both the large decrease in size and his increasing fear of assassination, he would spend the majority of his Presidency in the Cheyenne Mountain military bunker complex in neighbouring Colorado.

President Johnson's announcement that all federalised National Guard units were now the United States Military, and were to prepare for war to reclaim the states in rebellion against the Union, was the final nail in the coffin of the United States in any recognisable form. Over half the States of the Union were still loyal to the US government, but this had finally pushed them too far. Just like the western parts of the Soviet Union in 1989 CE, and Yugoslavia in the early 1990's CE, the federal government shattered the loyalty of the remaining States, chasing States that they had already lost.

Refusing to give up control of their National Guard's to a President who had driven 24 states out of the Union; Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa seceded to form the Commonwealth of the Great Lakes. The Commonwealth immediately asked to join the defence pact that existed between the United States of New England and the Union of Steel. Happy to see more states return to civilian and lawful rune (USNE) and abandon President Johnson (Union of Steel) both agreed.

Like the United States of New England, the Commonwealth of the Great Lakes would spend the next two decades healing the wounds left by the patriot brigades and President Johnson. They would join the Systems Alliance along with their eastern and south eastern neighbours in 2146 CE.

Due to the internal movement of pro and anti-Alliance supporters when this whole crisis had begun, the 19 States that remained in President Johnson's United States of America all had heavy anti-Alliance majority's. But there was one final humiliation for the President to endure.

With the vast majority of the former US military now part of the Union of Steel, the only military forces remaining to the United States were the 19 remaining States National Guards. The States of the former Confederacy were larger and more populous than the States in the interior surrounding Wyoming, where President Johnson had set up the new United States government without consulting any of the remaining Governors.

As such these States National Guards were bigger than those closer to the new capital, an opportunity that lawmakers with an idolised view of the Confederacy were quick to exploit. Declaring that there was no intention to ever return to slavery, but that their States' rights were being trampled on by the orders coming from Cheyenne; the new Confederate politicians managed to sway a critical mass of the population behind their position. Namely that the only way to respond to the tyrannical orders from Cheyenne was the way that their ancestors had in 1861 CE. South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri seceded from the USA and formed the New Confederate States of America.

The NCSA never did reinstitute slavery. It remains an isolationist state, refusing to engage with the Systems Alliance or its neighbours, the Union of Steel, The Republic of Texas or the Commonwealth of the Great Lakes.

The 9 remaining States; Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota were all that were left of the once powerful United States of America. President Johnson created a new Constitution, claiming that the 'treachery' of the legislative and judicial branches declaring his actions illegal and then impeaching him had given the States the excuse they needed to break away.

Renaming the government to the United States of Free America, the successor state to the USA has an executive branch with dictatorial level powers and no state National Guards. Though the judicial and legislative branches still exist, they are mere polite theatre to give the appearance of a check on the executive branches power.

Seeing themselves as the sole legitimate rulers of the territory of the former United States of America, every President of the United States of Free America has sworn to bring the other 41 states back into the USFA, and then take the fight to the Alliance. Fighting their way back to freedom in the stars. They have never achieved it.

The United States of Free America remains locked in an on/off war with the New Confederate States of America to this day. With the Nebraska/Kansas/Missouri border between the two nations a mess of minefields, wreckage and bombed out towns.

*A map showing this in more detail has been added to my tumblr. thefourthcouncilrace dot tumblr dot com.

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An Intermission

There have been so many reviews for this chapter that I am completely overwhelmed and am unable to respond to them all individually, which I always try to do for my reviewers. For the ~70% who love this chapter, thank you for your positive review, I hope you'll forgive the lack of a personal response this time. For the ~30% who hate it, the half of you that aren't just being abusive are hitting on the same points, so I have decided to write this interlude, to try and address the most common points together, I hope it answers the questions you have.

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Was this Necessary?

Yes. My story covers the formation of the Systems Alliance, something that canon condenses into 2 paragraphs. Other authors get around this by having an Alliance that you never see the formation of when their stories hit the First Contact War. Since I am sticking as close to canon as possible at the start so as to have a snowball effect by the time of ME1 instead of a cliff edge at first contact, mine must change as it does in canon, transitioning from an Executive Council to a directly elected Parliament. I am not willing to use the copout of having it all happening offstage as it is an absolute key moment in the history of mass effect humanity if you are covering this period.

The Demands of Canon – and the very little information it gives us – are thus.

It is stated that the nation states making up the Systems Alliance are deadlocked, squabbling, and unable to respond to the turian invasion of Shanxi due to disagreement over who should lead the response.

The Systems Alliance must suffer at the very least a fleet wide mutiny, or more likely a military coup as it is stated that Admiral Drescher takes the Alliance 2nd fleet to Shanxi to repel the turians against orders.

It is stated that the Systems Alliance uses the first contact war to go from being a council of nations to a directly elected parliamentary democracy. Only the Alliance is represented in space, though still sovereign in their own territory on Earth, Earth's nation states are irrelevant in interstellar affairs within 26 years of the First Contact War (the start of ME1)

In two paragraphs canon sets a hell of a challenge for any writer trying to actually show this process. Canon completely sidesteps it, but I find it really interesting which is why I wanted to write about it. The fact that any mentions of the Earth's nation states are relegated to obscure codex entries is very telling. If they were still important, or influenced Alliance policy to any significant degree, they would be far more prominent in the ME universe.

As they are not, they need to have their power removed by the Systems Alliance, and no nation gives up that sort of power easily. Which is probably why canon doesn't show it as its controversial, but that just makes it more fascinating for me to investigate and write about. I love figuring out how things work, so searching for a plausible way to make it happen was a lot of fun for me and a great boost to my writing motivation.

While I am not following canon's fate of the USA, canon does have it joining with Mexico and Canada to form the United North American States. Which promptly goes on to suffer a brutal Second American Civil war when secessionist forces rise up. So, even in canon, the USA in its current form is long gone and suffers a civil war.

The fact that canon relegates this to a single codex entry obtained in Katsumi's DLC, because it is so controversial, is why so many Mass Effect fans don't realise that that's the fate ME created for the USA. I've just gone the opposite way, using a civil war to split the USA into smaller nation states, rather than having it absorb its smaller neighbours then suffer a civil war.

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How would you feel if someone did this to the UK?

I'd feel fine. It all depends on how the author arranges history. If, in the authors historical world, Brexit was a success then the UK would absolutely have followed the USA out of the Alliance and would also have shattered into its component nation states.

Northern Ireland would have seceded and joined the Republic of Ireland and thus the Alliance (after a lot of bloody fighting between its Protestant and Catholic population), Scotland and Wales would have seceded with Scotland joining the Alliance and Wales not. England would have been left at war with itself, its pro and anti-Alliance factions tearing it apart until it reformed into 2 – 4 nation states, some Alliance members, some not.

If, in the authors historical world, Brexit was a total disaster, then Britain would not make the same mistake of leaving a multination union twice. Remembering the catastrophe of leaving the EU, Britain would stay with the Systems Alliance through thick and thin.

If the author did not match the historical data trend with the outcome, THAT is what would annoy me. Not any specific possible fate that might befall the UK in the future in the event that there are alien ruins on Mars and organic AI machines waiting to harvest us in darkspace.

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Was mentioning Brexit necessary?

Yes. As explained in more detail above, Brexit must be shown to have been a total disaster to justify Britain's decision to stay with the Systems Alliance, or a roaring success to justify leaving it. One of those two must be shown. As I am the author I picked total disaster for this universe. This kept the UK in the Alliance rather than having it leaving it with the USA.

One of the two interpretations had to be added to this story's post 2018 history. Not mentioning it, when it is so similar to the USA's actions of leaving a union of nations that establishes its own parliament, was not a viable option.

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Singling out the USA and China

Why do it? Is it necessary?

Yes, it is necessary. As stated earlier, canon tells us that the nation states that make up the Alliance deadlock in the First Contact War. The only possible nations with the economic, political and military power to cause this are the USA and China, acting in opposition to each other.

If they were not, then they would steamrole any other nation or group of nations trying to cause a deadlock. Canon requires them to be singled out and I am staying close to it in the early stages, snowballing small changes rather than immediately charging off with massive divergences leading to a barely recognisable ME1.

As they have been singled out, and a military coup has successfully beaten the turians and liberated Shanxi, they form the two sides of the political crisis. The remaining Alliance nations must pick a side. The Military, or the USA and China

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Why have a military coup?

Canon states that Admiral Drescher takes the Alliance 2nd fleet to liberate Shanxi against orders. While it is never stated whether this was a military coup or simply a fleetwide mutiny, the extra development time has drastically increased the Alliance fleet size in my story.

Admiral Drescher is leading the Grand Fleet of over 1,600 ships with a 4.4 million soldier strong army group – virtually the Alliance's entire ground forces – attached to it. A fleet wide mutiny is not an option, there are too many conflicting opinions and ideas in a force that size. A top down military coup keeping most of the fleet in the dark until its done is the only realistic option.

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Straw Men

Several reviewers have stated that I am using straw men.

This is their own fault.

We were supposed to see several of these anti-Alliance politicians and voters in more detail, over several chapters. Seeing their motivations, fears, hopes and desires for the future. Instead the whole multi chapter story arc was condensed into two codex entries due to their rage reviews complaining that I wasn't creating a future exactly and precisely like the one they wanted.

Now all of that character development is missing they have the gall to claim that the characters for the fates of the USA and China are flat caricatures.

It's the best I could do with the limited word count of two the codex entries. If they wanted more complex characters, they should have STFU and watched as we saw more of them and how they believed they were doing the right thing, they all had development planned. But they fired off rage reviews instead, so they don't get to complain now their chickens have come home to roost.

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You Hate Democracy

I really do not hate democracy. I simply acknowledge its flaws. For just as Winston Churchill's quote tells us: "No one pretends that democracy is perfect, or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried."

Anyone who fights a general or local election campaign can only despair at the lack of political engagement. Low voter turnouts, refusal to fact check news that fits their world view, refusal to acknowledge the past of their chosen party, refusal to compromise, refusal of many to look beyond Facebook memes, the complete disregard of expert analysis and the growing belief that if the facts contradict your feelings, then the facts must be wrong. All of it is very hard to fight against.

People say some of my characters are caricatures, I assure you they are all based on people I have met while campaigning (I have stood for election 4 times). Some of whom hold public office. Comprehensive, accurate information on what the political parties stand for, have achieved, and are promising to do is the bedrock of democracy, and it's under attack from all sides.

The inclusion of Russia, manipulating the voters of the Alliance and the Alliance leaders not calling them out on it, condoning Russia's actions because it's vital to their majorities, is meant to show that the Systems Alliance leaders are just as bad as the leaders of the anti-Alliance faction in the USA.

As Admiral Drescher says, whether you are seen as a hero or a villain depends largely on whether you win or not, and even then, it's just a creation of perception. It was not meant to show that I am fine with anti-democratic activity as long as it benefits the people I like. Fairness cuts both ways, you can't take an advantage from another party – claiming it is unfair – and then turn around and give it to yourself.

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Your 'Democracy' is really just a small group of people deciding what Must Be Done

Uuuummmm….. you literally just described democracy.

A group of people – usually small – decides What Must Be Done. Then they go, along with all of the other small groups of people who have ideas, and try and persuade their fellow political party members that their small group's idea of What Must Be Done is the right one.

Once the party has decided which small group's idea of What Must Be Done is the best, they go and implement it (if they are in government) or go and convince the electorate (if they are in opposition.)

This is how democracy works. I could show the steps after the small group decides on What Must Be Done I suppose, the debates, the public rallies, the knife edge legislature votes, the horse-trading with other parties, the coalition building. The election results as seat after seat declares in the battle of the What Must Be Done ideas.

I think if I did that however, the rest of my readers would come and lynch you for slowing the story down so much! Just accept that that the small group you see making decisions is going to have days of work at a minimum convincing other people that it's a good enough plan of action to get it turned into reality. If their looking down the barrel of an election campaign, it could be years of work.

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The US Constitution

Did you expect more of your American readers to have actually read their Constitution? – Yes, seriously guys. It's not that long!

Did you expect people with rants about your use of the Constitution to at least google their rant first to see if it was true or not? – Yes. I thought this was a pre-requisite, it is truly amazing how many American readers have reviewed, ranting that the US Constitution says things that 20mins of research on google will tell you is complete bollocks. Here are five of my favourites.

The President cannot withdraw from international treaties or organisations without the consent of a supermajority of the Senate. – Yes, they can, and they have. See the actions of Presidents Trump, GW Bush and Carter. All of whom withdrew from international treaties without Senate approval.

In the case of President's GW Bush and Carter, cases claiming their withdrawal without Senate approval was unconstitutional, despite the Constitution only requiring ENTRY – not withdrawal – be ratified by a Senate supermajority, made it to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case both times, claiming that it was a political matter, not a judicial one.

The President cannot ignore the Supreme Court declaring their actions unconstitutional. – It depends how you interpret the Constitution. The constitutional law argument of departmentalism looks into this in more detail, but in practice it depends how serious a crisis the President has on their hands as to if they can get away with it in the eyes of Congress and the US electorate.

President Lincoln is the only President to have got away with it so far, ignoring the Supreme Court declaring his suspension of habaes corpus in rebelling states unconstitutional in 1861. To be fair, a civil war is a pretty big crisis that justified ignoring the Supreme Court, but that doesn't mean he will be the last President to get away with ignoring the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court will stop the imprisonment of US Citizens without due process, Separation of Powers demands it. The Supreme Court avoided this the last time it featured in real world history when it refused to rule on whether the internment of Japanese Americans in WW2 without charge – or due process – beyond that they were of Japanese ancestry, was constitutional or not.

Separation of Powers does not check the power of the Executive branch when the Judicial branch deliberately looks the other way rather than applying the checks and balances that it supposed to.

Something has to be specifically in the Constitution for the President to have the power to do it. – This is the wrong way around, something has to be specifically mentioned in the Constitution for the President NOT to be able to do it, provided it does not violate the checks and balances (again) specifically mentioned in the Constitution.

See the constitutional arguments over the Louisiana purchase in 1803 for more details. (The fact that the Constitution is an enabling document confuses this a little, but the analysis of the Louisiana purchase constitutional powers debates and how real world politics turned the 'enabling' part of the constitution on its head is a really interesting part of history.)

Only Texas has the right to secede from the USA. – No state has the right to secede from the USA. The resolution of 1845 admitting the Republic of Texas to the United States of America as a state does give Texas the right to create 4 additional states out of its own territory, creating 5 states where there is currently only 1.

Though the creation of new states from the territory of existing ones is specifically forbidden without congressional approval by the Constitution, proponents argue that as the resolution admitting Texas passed both Houses of Congress with this cause intact it acts as congressional pre-approval. Meaning that technically Texas doesn't need Congress to approve it breaking up into 5 states if it wants to as Congress has done so already, in 1845.

Seriously guys. Google and reputable sources are your friends.

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No nation state has more than tin can coastguard units in space

Does the political crisis focus on the USA and China? – Yes, canon demands it.

Do the USA and China have to lose said political crisis? – Yes, canon demands it.

Is writing about the United States Space Navy going to add enough detail and emotion to your story to make up for the avalanche of hate filled reviews you're going to get when you have to write about its complete destruction at the hands of the Alliance Home Fleet when it tries to break the blockade? – No, not even close.

Would you rather deal with several smartass reviews saying it's ridiculous that no nation has significant military assets of their own in space? Or deal with that avalanche of (actually understandable) hate when you write about half of your readers home nations Space Fleet (USSN) being blown to bits because the plot dictates that if it exists, it has to lose. Causing heartbreak to any US military family readers? – I'll take the several smartass reviews and the tin cans please. Hopefully the Treaty of Mars codex entry in chapter 13 explains the plot way around it that I came up with sufficiently.

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China is Acting Irrationally

'The Foreign policy of the Peoples Republic of China is to use international mediating bodies to expand China's influence too the detriment of the USA and Russia. Staying in the Systems Alliance is in China's national interest.'

This is entirely true and maybe where several people are getting confused. Looking only skin deep, the above sentence does indeed make it look like China is acting irrationally by walking away from the new Systems Alliance.

Nations, however don't always act in their national interest. Source: All of history.

Often there are domestic complications that force a government to act against its country's national interests, because following them would violate too many of their country's internal red lines. (This is more common in democracies where the government has to answer to an electorate that may not know – or care – what the national interest is. Depending on the level of education, availability and freedom of information, political engagement and distortion of the national interest via vested interested lobbying present in the country.)

Multi-party democracy is the biggest and reddest of the Chinese Communist Party's Big Red Lines. They are able to use international mediating bodies to expand their influence due to the fact that those bodies do not require China to be democratic.

Membership of the new Systems Alliance requires the recognition of the Systems Alliance Parliament as the ruler of your nation state in the areas of interspecies diplomacy and warfare and interstellar colonisation and trade (at least, the constitution hasn't been finalised yet and may expand on those powers).

This would be bad enough for China, but they MIGHT have still been persuaded joining and using their influence to control the new Parliament was in their best interests, if not for the fact that it is a directly elected multi-party democratic parliament.

There is absolutely no way that the Chinse Communist Party will allow anything other than One Party rule in China. To do otherwise would shake the foundation of their form of government to its foundations.

It would be as if the USA suddenly decided to suspend all multi-party democratic elections and announced that the President would now be chosen by the leaders of their own party. Which is now the only party allowed, and agitation for democracy or membership of another party is a jailable criminal offence.

As you can see from the above scenario, given the scale of the change that China would be forced to make, there is no amount of national interest that would make the Chinese Communist Party agree to that.

So, China is acting entirely rationally and in character, provided you look below the surface of simple national interest and cross reference it with the culture, government and historical actions and data trends of China and its current rulers.

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The Fate of China

Did you have to make China descend into civil war? – Yes, canon demands that the USA/China faction loses and together the USA and China were far too strong to guarantee that would happen.

It's not realistic to expect China to descend into civil war, the Chinese Communist Party and Peoples Liberation Army's grip on power is too strong. – Countries are always too strong to descend into civil war, until they suddenly aren't, and the war begins. See the Arab Spring. despite the outcomes, no one would have said that those dictatorships could have been toppled without outside support, until they were. The dictators and their armies grip on power was too strong to shake, until suddenly it wasn't anymore.

Why have you shown the Nationalists and the Republic of China in such a good light? They were corrupt and hated. – So were the Communists, they were as bad as each other. While it's true at the start the Nationalists were little more than a massively corrupt military junta, today the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a fully functioning democracy with the full engagement and support of its people and has one of the best human rights records in Asia.

I thought it was an appropriate reward to have them take back the Chinese mainland rather than have China descend totally into warlord infested chaos.

Xinjang, Tibet and Outer Mongolia have been the subject of deliberate settlement of Han Chinese citizens to dilute the indigenous population and maintain their loyalty to Beijing. They'd never rebel. – Never underestimate an oppressed and occupied people's desire for freedom, especially if the chance that comes looks to be the last one they will ever get. However remote the likelihood of success is.

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The Irrational Actions of the United States of America

Well this is going to be a long one! So, I have subdivided it as well.

The Council Meeting

Do the actions, facts and points outlined below mean that the American People, States, Congress and Cabinet will refuse to join the Systems Alliance, at least at the time of the council meeting where it is sprung on President Goldwater by Prime Minister Tharoor? – Yes

Can President Goldwater reasonably be expected to know that the American People, States, Congress and Cabinet will refuse to join this new version of the Systems Alliance? – Yes, he is their elected leader and has his finger on the pulse of the nation as he is in the middle of a re-election campaign. Even if he wasn't he would still know the opinion of the USA on such a sudden and divisive topic.

Will announcing America's refusal to join the USA immediately and publicly in that council chamber sway any of the nations that have not yet irreversibly chosen a side away from the Military/India/EU faction and towards the USA/China faction? – Possibly. It doesn't, but he can't be reasonably expected to know this at the time.

Taking all the above points into account is President Goldwater announcing America's withdrawal from the Systems Alliance and storming out of the meeting without consulting any other US government member justified? – Yes.

Joining the Systems Alliance, Even in its New Form is in the USA's National Interest.

Is it? – Yes, it absolutely is. The influence that the USA can expect to wield is immense, as are the benefits it will continue to have access to as a member state.

Ok….. so WTF have you had them leave? – Often there are domestic complications that force a government to act against its country's national interests, because following them would violate to many of their country's internal red lines. (This is more common in democracies where the government has to answer to an electorate that may not know – or care – what the national interest is. Depending on the level of education, availability and freedom of information, political engagement and distortion of the national interest via vested interested lobbying in the country.)

It will take time for the pro-Alliance members of the USA to convince a supermajority of its citizens, and thus its elected representatives, that joining the Alliance in its new form is in the National Interest of the USA. The USA cannot be a member of the Alliance in the time it takes to convince them.

What historical, current and predicted data trends made you believe that the USA would have domestic red lines overriding its national interest and making Alliance entry impossible? – I'm glad you asked. Let's go through them.

Historical Data Trends.

Historically American foreign policy has been to not be a member of any international organisation that they do not have total control over. Below are 3 examples.

The League of Nations. Designed and created by the US President Woodrow Wilson, the League of Nations was the hope of the world at the time. A brand-new way of doing things, to take the world peacefully into the future.

It was very much in the USA's national interest to be a member of the League, to use its newly acquired massive influence in the world to shape things to the advantage of America. Despite creating it and it being in their national interest to be a member, the USA refused to join. Not willing to subject itself to the judgement of other nations if it should lose a vote.

The United Nations. Designed and created by the US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the USA participates in the United Nations only on the proviso that it has Veto power to stop the UN from doing anything it doesn't like, let alone the UN doing anything to the USA itself. This damaged American influence, showing other nations that America believed itself to be better than them, weakening its soft power. But domestic red lines and political opinion demanded it.

When faced with the UN attempting to restrict its actions via not condoning the second invasion of Iraq (The USA and British vetoes made it impossible for the UN to actively condemn and demand a stop to it) the USA, Britain and others simply ignored the United Nations, burning through massive amounts of political capital, soft power, and influence. It was totally against America's national interest to bypass the United Nations in this way. But domestic political concerns demanded it, just as Britain's PM Tony Blair decided that supporting the USA no matter what was in Britain's national interest.

It most certainly was not, as the Lib Dem Leader Charles Kennedy pointed out at the time in Parliament. But he was ignored, again due to the domestic political situation. (This is not America bashing people, this is a look at foreign policy, and I've aired Britain's dirty laundry as well, so I can't be accused of bashing America and hiding my own nations faults.)

The international criminal court. The international Criminal Court was set up in 2002 and has 123 nation states as members. It was set up to make sure that those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes had nowhere to hide. The ICC is meant to compliment rather than replace nation states courts, so it can only hear cases when a nation states courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute, or when national governments or the UN Security Council refers cases to the court.

The USA is the only Western country (and the only New World country with the exception of Cuba and Nicaragua) that refuses to recognise the jurisdiction of the court. Though it signed the treaty founding the ICC, the Senate never ratified the treaty and the signature was withdrawn due to the fear that an American might one day be in the dock.

This idea, that its fine for the ICC to judge other people's citizens but not theirs, drastically reduced America's moral authority and influence worldwide on the matters of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The decision not to ratify the treaty and recognise the International Criminal Court was against America's national interest. But domestic political concerns demanded it.

*(India doesn't recognise the ICC either but, in my story, they are going for a naked power grab to take America's spot as the most powerful country in the world and leader of the Systems Alliance. Also, they're much more willing to engage in other international bodies)

Given the three historical examples of the USA's domestic red lines and political interests working against its national interests and refusal to submit to any authority other than their own, is the decision that they would not join an organisation with a directly elected parliament that would become the ruler of their nation state (outranking the Congress and the President in the areas of interspecies diplomacy and warfare and interstellar colonisation and trade) justified by American history? – Yes.

Is there no compromise that would allow the USA to join earlier?

Yes, there is. Joining is massively in the USA's national interest. If they have a chance to join while maintaining control of the Systems Alliance they'll jump at it.

What is it? – Changing the nature of the Alliance Parliament, from one person, one vote, to one dollar one vote. Assigning seats in the parliament to each country based on the country's economic strength rather than its population.

That sounds very unequal. – It is, it's in direct contradiction to the idea that all people are created equal, and that all people should have an equal say in the system that decides the laws that they have to live by. Instead it sets a dollar value on votes, the more cash your country has, the more say you have in the laws that govern everybody.

Would the Americans go for it? – Yes, they already distort the one person, one vote system with the electoral college, taking votes from the larger states and giving them to smaller ones to meet its minimum 3 votes per state requirement. That makes 1 Vermont citizens vote for president worth the same as 3 Texan's votes and 1 Wyoming citizens worth the same as 4 Californian's votes.

This is why you can technically become president of the USA with only 22% of the popular vote by taking advantage of the electoral college's distortion and winning only the small states. As they're already used to this system, selling a system to the US electorate based on economic contribution rather than population should be relatively easy.

Would the biggest Alliance nations go for it?

India: No, on a population basis America would have only 24.4% of India's voting power. On an economic basis, India would have only 12% of America's voting power.

Russia: No, on a population basis Russia would have 44% of America's voting power, on an economic one, only 6.7%. Voters are also much easier to manipulate than markets.

The European Union: No. As a matter of established principle in the belief of equality. The European Parliament divides its seats via the population of its member states on the one person, one vote principle. There is no allowance or change made for the size of each member states economy in its assigned representation to the Parliament, despite the wildly different sizes of the EU member states economies.

So, would the compromise work? – No, the Americans would accept it, but the three biggest members of the Systems Alliance would never allow it to be offered. For reasons of principle or political advantage (history will, of course, say it was principle) the seats in the Alliance Parliament will be assigned to the member nations by population. One person, one, equal, vote.

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The Fate of the United States of America

Did you really need to break up the USA?

No, but I wanted a dramatic explosion, an exciting end to America's time as the most powerful nation state in the world. Not it slinking back, tail between its legs, to the countries it had once led, then engaged in economic battle, and had then been defeated by.

The question shouldn't be did I need to do it, but rather: Did I make the events leading up to it plausible? Please bear in mind that canon also destroys the USA in its current form by having it join with Mexico and Canada to form the United North American States and then has the UNAS suffer a civil war.

Ok, did you make the events leading up to it plausible?

Yes, again let's look at some data trends.

Is there a fair division of the US population between the pro and anti-alliance camps at the start? – Yes. 1/3rd for the Alliance, 1/3rd against, and 1/3rd undecided. Just like at the start of the American war of Independence.

Is it plausible that the USA would lose the economic war? – Yes, without China the USA has only $19.3 trillion GDP, Nominal and PPP. This is compared to the Alliance's ~$40 trillion GDP Nominal and ~53 trillion GDP PPP. With China, the economies of the two factions were evenly matched. Without it, the USA's economy is less than half of the Alliance's.

This is while using today's figures, figures that don't take into account 80+ years of development in the poorer Alliance member nations, or the off-world colonies. In short, without China the USA is woefully outmatched by the Alliance economy.

Is it plausible that an extremist like President Johnson would win the White House? – Yes, extremists, both left and right, are beating moderate, establishment candidates in primaries across America and around the world.

Is it plausible that the Executive Branch could become so powerful at the expense of the Legislative Branch? – Yes. The Congress is continuing to be almost constantly deadlocked, forcing the President to rule through executive degree. It happened to President Obama, now it is happening to President Trump.

The most shocking thing is that it is currently a Republican Congress frustrating the legislative agenda of a Republican President, this does not bode well for the future of Congressional/Presidential relations. The Pew Research Centre also found last year that 17% of Americans think that military rule would be a good idea and 22% favoured a strong President ruling "without interference from Congress or the Courts."

Even allowing for a significant margin of error those are worrying poll numbers, and they are likely to only be made worse by the constant Congressional - Congressional/Presidential deadlock. Extrapolating these trends forward 80+ years, it makes President Johnson being able to ignore the Congress impeaching him very plausible.

Is it plausible that the extreme anti-alliance faction would form the patriot brigades? – Yes, something very similar happened during the civil rights era of the USA with the KKK targeting and breaking up any pro-civil rights rallies they thought they could handle and/or avoid police action over.

The far right is on the rise across Europe and is beginning to show signs of rising in the USA. It is entirely plausible that this far right activity, aided by political polarisation, could lead to the creation of the patriot brigades. First targeting the far left, extreme pro-Alliance rallies, then branching out to combat any pro-Alliance activity at all.

Is it plausible that these confrontations between the far right and far left could become full on battles? – Yes, especially with the easy access to guns in America. It only takes one person to pull the trigger (or think someone else has) in the middle of a standoff to get everyone firing.

Is it plausible that these battles could spread and overwhelm the police? – Yes, once you start pitching one section of society against another, you'd be surprised how fast the hatred spreads. Source: The disintegration of Yugoslavia and Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.

Is it plausible that the President could order the round up and incarceration of his political opponents – Yes, see most republic to dictatorship revolutions around the world.

Is it plausible that the military will obey the Commander in Chief over the Constitution – Yes, Constitutions are just ink on a page. They are only as strong as the faith and trust their populations put in them.

If the military believes that the Commander in Chief represents their views more than the Constitution does, they can ignore the Constitution and follow the President's orders. See most republic to dictatorship revolutions around the world.

Is it plausible that States might secede from the Union over this? – Yes, if the Constitution is in shreds, the Supreme Court irrelevant, the Congress neutered and the President dictator in all but name, then the Union is already dead. At this point the (story) US government is just a wolf wearing its skin.

Is it plausible that Hawaii and Alaska are the first to secede? – Yes, both are isolated from the continental USA and so are protected from reprisals until they can find protectors.

Is it plausible that Puerto Rico and the other territories would join the Kingdom of Hawaii? – Yes, what option would you choose? Stay with a republic turning into a dictatorship that has denied you a vote in the presidential elections since your incorporation? Or join a new constitutional monarchy made up of your fellow Americans that will offer you a voice?

Several people pointed out that they could have formed their own nation, but that would have required them actively planning it and then getting the Alliance to offer them protectorate status as well. Caught by surprise by Hawaii's secession, it would be easier and safer to join the Kingdom of Hawaii under the Alliance's protective umbrella than it would be to try and strike out on their own.

Is it plausible Texas would secede rather than round up its pro-Alliance citizens? – Yes. The extremists aside, most people know that even if they disagree with their neighbours their neighbours are fundamentally good people, only doing what they believe is right.

I think that the people of Texas would recognise this, follow the principles of the US Constitution of equality, freedom of belief and political expression and secede to sort out these differences peacefully and respectfully. Rather than round them up on the orders of a (story) dictatorial federal government that had abandoned all of the spirit and much of the letter of constitutional law.

Did you have to use Texas? - Yes, I needed a State that was large, wealthy, powerful and far from Washington DC so that it could plausibly stand up to an attack for a few days. So yes.

Couldn't you have used California? – Probably, but then my inbox would have been full of people calling me a libertard shillary fan making a thinly veiled call for Blue States to secede from Trump's 'Merica. So, Texas had to be the first State out of the door on the continental US, lest my laptop melt from all the hate in my inbox.

Do you really think the US military would mutiny? – After President Johnson violated the Constitution that badly, then turned them on their own home states? I thought I was pushing it having them remain loyal to him as long as I did.

That's ridiculous, the US military would mutiny before attacking their home states – Yes, they did. They were ordered to attack Texas but only the Airforce ever fired a shot. Before then they had simply been helping the police round up pro-alliance sympathisers. They mutinied as soon as they were turned on a whole state.

They wouldn't mutiny as a unit, they'd just return to their home states – Yes, they did, but over half come from the states that I assigned to the Union of Steel. So that's where they went back to and founded the Union of Steel to bring order from the chaos and the internment camps. Imposing military rule and curfews to try and start undoing the damage and all the hate that has been unleashed. Keeping people separate until they accept that their neighbours are not traitors and monsters simply for holding different opinions.

Did you have to create the United States of Free America and the New Confederate States of America? – Yes. Not all of the American successor states could join the Alliance, nor could they all be peaceful, happy, democratic non-members like the Republic of Texas.

So, I needed an opponent for the aggressive, dictatorial remnants of the (story) US government to fight that so that they wouldn't cause a war with the Systems Alliance by attacking them, no matter what the chances of victory. An isolationist New Confederacy was the perfect solution.

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The End

So as a quick summary: Canon demands the military coup, the singling out of the USA and China, the directly elected by one member one vote Alliance Parliament and Earth's nation states becoming irrelevant. It also justifies the destruction of the USA in its present form and the USA or its successor state suffering a civil war, because canon does both of those things to the USA.

I hope this answered all of your questions. I also hope you continue to read, enjoy and review my story. Best wishes, Knight Vigilant Koren.