Andromedons: Organizations

The Andromedon Federation

"The Federation was a desperate gamble, it was never meant to last forever."

- V'Zarrah, of Union Viarior

The Andromedon Federation appears from the outside to be the culmination of the unification of a species for the modern era. While certain details are different from other kinds of government, as should be expected from all alien species, there is a clear logic behind the structure and motivations. The Federation itself can be easily compared to a Republic, where all the major powers, the Unions, have representation in their system, which is overseen by an approved member.

However, the Federation was only formed as a desperate measure to save their species from extinction. The resentment, fury, and hatred from the Union Wars has not faded as much as some believe, and there are many who would wish to reignite the war to settle the old scores and dominate the species for themselves.

The question then, is what could force such a drastic step to be taken; what could make even the most bitter of rivals band together and flee their galaxy itself?

For that, there is an answer. The Andromedons have revealed almost no explanation for why they inhabit this galaxy publicly, but they did reveal some details to the Imperator himself. The story itself is brief, and lacking many details, but what little we do know is cause for concern for any who aspire to explore beyond the confines of our own, and serves as a warning to the arrogant that there are aspects of the galaxy which still remain mysteries, and powers which cannot be easily controlled or understood.

This is how the Andromedons explained it:

The Union Wars were continuing as usual, which amounted to the formation, dissolution, creation, and destruction of Unions and Alliances. At the time Unions Reinarm and Zacarrim were the primary powers within the Andromedons, with Union Viarior profiting off both Unions, and every other Union backing one side or another, and some of the lesser Unions merging together in a bid to survive, and waging smaller wars on the unknown or unimportant Unions.

You would imagine such a conflict to signify a final end to the Union Wars. Such an assumption would be incorrect, as it merely signaled that one major Union was going to be significantly weakened or destroyed by the end, and those who supported the winner would betray them and the cycle would continue over and over again. This was as common an outcome as one could expect.

However, the war had grown to reach so many systems and regions that it was inevitable that they would stumble upon alien life. In fact, the Andromedons had indeed stumbled upon a small pre-flight species. Of course, saying "Andromedons" means little as it was only the Unions that mattered, and there were always no fewer than fifty.

Union Irriaran were the ones who discovered this species, and immediately saw a use for what essentially amounted to a slave race, which were described as 'tall bipeds with blue and pink skin types'. These aliens were referred to as Havarilians due to the name of their homeworld, and Irriaran began genetically improving, modifying, and conditioning them to fight.

This led to them gaining a significant advantage in the Wars, and many new allies. For reasons they didn't explain, they made an enemy of Union Viarior who promptly severed all trade and sale with them, and began heavily restricting sales for any Union who supported them. Most Unions saw this opportunity to wipe out the Union, and banded together in yet another alliance to kill them.

They did not succeed in wiping out Irriaran, clearly, but they ended up wiping out the Havarilians, and the planet was given to Union Haruma to sterilize and wipe out any who were left. This first encounter with aliens made all Andromedons arrogant as to their capabilities, so when several Unions first encountered the Kett'Tasira Empire, they did not treat them seriously.

From what little was told, it appeared that the Kett'Tasira seemed to realize that the Andromedons were dangerous, although they didn't know the specifics of their history, and seemed to only want them to stay out of their territory. Emissaries from the Kett'Tasira sent to Union Zacarrim were famously captured, modified, and sent back with bombs in them with a note saying the equivalent of "We will maneuver where we please, alien. Do not stand in our way unless you wish to suffer the same fate as the Havarilians." While helpfully including data on the now-sterilized planet.

The Kett'Tasira responded by launching their own fleet against Union Zacarrim, which turned out to be much, much larger than what any of the Andromedons were expecting. This caught all Andromedons by surprise, as most had expected a small spaceflight species, but initially they paid no mind and in true Andromedon tradition, Union Reinarm and their allies attacked Zacarrim.

Fighting on two fronts, the alliance Zacarrim had dissolved and Reinarm prepared for the inevitable betrayal. They foolishly believed that the Kett'Tasira would just leave, and were completely shocked when they continued their war on all Andromedons. This was when the Kett'Tasira revealed they not only had fleets and armies, but also an ability which defied Andromedon understanding which they referred to as "Biomanipulation."

From how they describe it, it sounds very similar in many ways to Psionic Biopathy…which is impressive if true, since Andromedons describe the Kett'Tasira as being able to wave and the skin of Andromedons would drip off, or they would simply contract strange and incurable diseases. But I am not sure, since they also describe being able to extract information by a simple touch, and perform similar actions against non-living materials.

It is not like the Andromedons to falsify information, nor exaggerate. This also appeared to be abilities of a significant portion of their population, and a species with this many potential Biopaths is…concerning.

Regardless, that is a different discussion. The Andromedons eventually determined that the Kett'Tasira were going to either kill or assimilate them, as they were able to somehow turn Andromedons into a strange hybrid of their own species, and used them against the remaining Unions. Unions Viarior, Reinarm, and Jamoiar banded together, and formed the first official Andromedon Federation, and demanded all Unions join them if they wished to live.

Most did. Some did not.

The newly created Federation leadership had determined that based on what they had seen, they could not win against the Kett'Tasira, and surrender would only lead to assimilation. Thus they made an executive decision to leave the galaxy and hope that would deter the Kett'Tasira from following them.

It does strike me as somewhat ironic that the first official action of the Federation was to flee.

Regardless, they quickly developed the technology needed for such a journey on the run, and by the edge had managed to put together something that was theorized to work. Cloning pods, food synthesizers, stasis pods, and travel dreadnoughts packed with power cells comprised their journey into the great unknown.

During this period of travel, they decided to hash out the details of how the Federation would function, and from that we have the Andromedon Federation we know of today. It was not without its challenges, but due to the foresight of the original architects, it has prevented the Union Wars from continuing to arise.

If it will last much longer is up for debate.

- The Andromedon Federation – Historical Overview by Cogitian

Operation: Suited Questions

Division: Andromedon Intelligence

Report Author: Zar'laroa'vitiary

Authorization: Zar'Chon

Zar'Chon,

The Andromedon Federation is one of the most influential members of the Ethereal Collective, only rivaled by the Greater Hive Commanders. However, the Federation has a much different structure than most governments in the Collective, including those on Vitakar. On paper this is a republic. In practice it's very similar to the Collective in that its primary purpose is to prevent the various factions from killing each other.

In this case, that is the Unions. Andromedon alliances and relationships were fluid and wracked with betrayal for the vast majority of their history. Now all of them have to at least pretend to get along, and as a result, the Federation itself is mostly a shell devoid of any real power, and for any insight on what the Andromedons are really doing or thinking, you need to look to the Unions.

Specifically, the ones leading the Unions.

The following is a compiled overview of the important figures within the Federation, allies, threats, and so on. Most Andromedons are thankfully not necessarily threats to us, but the growing antagonism towards the Sectoids is becoming concerning, and given their apparent history with a previous species that almost killed them, they might postpone dissolving the Federation until the Sectoids are dead.

Along with anyone else they deem a threat.

Chernior, Chief Overseer of the Andromedon Federation: The Chief Overseer has the thankless job of managing the Andromedon Federation and keeping all of the Unions together. He also has command over the Andromedon Military, small as it is, and is responsible for ensuring the Unions have their basic necessities taken care of and the military is well-supplied.

Like all Chief Overseers, he renounced his Union in a symbolic gesture to show he was committed to the protection and advancement of all Andromedons. We do know that he originally came from Union Viarior, although he seems committed to not letting that influence any of his decisions. However, it certainly explains how he is absurdly talented with logistics and diplomacy. Not all Chief Overseers have such skills.

Chernior himself is definitely a supporter of the Collective, and sees no good outcome in leaving it or returning to the Union Wars of old, which is mildly surprising even for one in his position. To that end he has been trying to smooth over damaged relations between various Unions and relaxed even the few rules on the Unions which had been imposed so they could work towards whatever their goals were.

However, he absolutely does not support the Sectoids and has gone on record multiple times saying that their continued expansion and influence over the Collective military is dangerous and are becoming a more present threat to the Federation. He may be using this as a way to unify the Federation further, but I suspect not.

Chernior has only recently begun reviewing the current war on Earth with a strange interest. So far he has not made any comment, but we suspect he is not pleased with how events are progressing. He reportedly felt disrespected when the Collective began invading Earth without consulting the Federation first, and ever since he has only provided Federation assets begrudgingly in the assumption that all of this would be ended soon.

As it has not, it will be interesting to see what he does next.

A'Intellior, Chief Intelligence Overseer of Union Apear: To Apear, 'Chief Intelligence Overseer" has absolutely nothing to do with our tradecraft. It refers specifically to artificial intelligence, of which A'Intellior oversees every single major project dealing with this. This Andromedon is by all accounts a master in AI in his own right, and is personally responsible for developing all modern machine intelligences used in the Collective military today.

When Chief Overseer Chernior began relaxing restrictions, included those on AI research, and Apear publicly revealed no less than fifteen 'planned' projects, which meant that Apear had been doing these regardless and could reveal them now. A'Intellior is a major proponent of AI, and the integration into all parts of Andromedon society and the military.

Naturally designed by his Union, of course.

A'Intellior does not particularly like the Ethereals, and when one of the Ethereals (We were unable to determine which) requested that Apear 'refocus' onto a less dangerous path, he reportedly was greatly amused and sent back a denial challenging the Collective to make him. While also unsubtly suggesting that they were too late to do anything about it.

There are already clues that Union Apear has an AI. A'Intellior is not doing anything to dispel those rumors. He is not going to stop continuing AI research and development, and I am not sure the Collective will intervene to stop him. To my knowledge, if AI's make Ethereals uncomfortable, that is only an incentive to some Unions.

We shall see how he is handled in the future.

S'Starina, Commander of Union Stuirah: The first side of the coin of Andromedon military power, S'Starina is the leader of one of the largest Unions in the Federation and the most senior Commander of their fleets. This is an Andromedon who earned his position through constant advancement and has participated in military operations with all races, including the Sectoids.

He has specifically said that he participated in military exercises with Sectoids to learn how to better kill them. He has called their tactics "Primitive, and indicative of a species which has never participated in a legitimate conflict."

The Greater Hive Commanders never responded, and as far as we know, never even knew the comments were made in the first place.

S'Starina however is a firm supporter of the Collective, or it would be more accurate to say, the Battlemaster, who he admires greatly. He is paradoxically critical of most every other Ethereal, and has suggested that they are unreliable leaders, and were not for the Battlemaster there would be no reason to continue the alliance.

Recently he has been keeping a close eye on intelligence reports on the Sectoids, and coordinating heavily with Federation and Military Command, as well as a lot of other militaristic Unions, who all happen to also hate the Sectoids. If there is a proponent for war, S'Starina will be at the center of it.

J'Vailan, Lead Overseer of Union Jamoiar: Of all the leaders of Unions, he is the most atypical. Jamoiar goes out of their way to make alliances with other smaller Unions, and as well as being one of the lead programmers of the Union, J'Vailan is also what amounts to their salesman who personally goes to sell their programs.

However, he does not restrict himself to Andromedons. Both the Vitakara, Collective Military, and even the Hive Commanders have accepted Jamoiar programs largely due to the fact that J'Vailan is the most polite Andromedon you will ever meet. He is agreeable, intelligent, and charismatic for an Andromedon.

This has led to the Jamoiar maintaining good relations with nearly every Collective race. I suspect much of this is an act, but J'Vailan has positioned the Union to where if there was ever a collapse of the Federation, he would have many allies to call upon. His private opinions on the Collective and Sectoids are unknown, but he likely views them as useful tools in his plans.

He is definitely preparing for another war, and also preparing to win it.

V'Zarrah, Chief Logistics Overseer of Union Viarior: V'Zarrah wants a return to the Union Wars. Not necessarily out of vengeance or what you might expect. In fact, if there is one Union that would survive, it would be them. But he wants a return because it would restore the influence Union Viarior enjoyed during the Union Wars.

They were indispensable to all, and decided outcomes based on their whims. They no longer enjoy that kind of power under the Federation. They continue to supply Unions faster than even Federation Command, but they are no longer relied upon. V'Zarrah deposed his predecessor who wanted to refocus the Union into something more…tangible than trade. Needless to say he had been plotting to take control of Viarior for some time.

V'Zarrah does not truly care about the Federation, Hive Commanders, Vitakara, or Humans. He cares about the lost power of his Union and all are tools and paths to reclaim it. He has been positioning his Union for such a situation for some time now, and he is admittedly one of the smartest the Union has ever produced.

It is likely he feels he has no choice. Because every passing year Viarior grows weaker and soon they will no longer be relevant at all.

In his mind then, steps must be taken. If S'Starina is a proponent for war, V'Zarrah would actually start one.

XCOM File 4994

Authorization Level: Internal Council

Subject: The Andromedon Federation

Threat Level: Medium to High

Assessment Author: Andromedon V'Thrask of Union Viarior

Note: Like previously, V'Thrask has restructured several aspects of the template for himself. However, it is nothing complicated. – Central Officer Jackson

OVERVIEW: Commander, I believe now is the time to give more of a clearer picture on the Andromedon Federation itself. I have previously mentioned that it is lesser in comparison to the Unions themselves, but there is worth in knowing about the metaphorical glue that holds our species together. The Andromedon Federation has, I feel, served its purpose. It was intended to provide a means of survival for our species and it has succeeded.

We are not a peaceful species, and it is not a matter of if the Federation will collapse, but when. It is only a matter of when one Union believes they have an advantage, and acts on it. Suppressing the hatreds, justified or not, between the Unions will only make the coming conflict worse. If there are Unions who believe the Federation is the correct structure, then they need to secure it through conflict, and not simply accept it because it has merely existed for decades since our arrival to this galaxy.

Nevertheless, I am of the firm belief that your species will accomplish the final dissolution of the Federation eventually, and so I will provide what you wish on the organization itself.

FEDERATION STRUCTURE: It is simple. Each Union sends a representative to the Federation to vote on matters brought up by the Chief Overseer. The means by which they are elected are unimportant, save that they are decided by each Union and there is no interference by the Federation. Extremely similar to the Aui'Vitakar, actually.

The Chief Overseer has the most authority in the Federation, and officially controls the Military, what limited law enforcement there is, manages Union disputes, and ensures that all Unions are supposedly prospering. He is also the primary diplomat of the Federation, and of all the Andromedons speaks to alien leadership the most.

The structure of the Federation is not complicated, Commander. It essentially exists to give the minor Unions some sense of power, even though nearly all of them are proxies of the more powerful Unions. Voting is largely on pointless matters, resource usage, and planet colonization. Nothing of real import is usually decided.

FEDERATION POLITICS: An interesting question. There are, admittedly, some areas of thought within the Federation which differ from each other. There are not many, and usually use the Federation as a kickstarter for alliances and inter-Union decisions.

There are Expansionists, who want the Federation to prioritize the colonization of planets in order to expand their hard territory and industrial capabilities. They want the Federation to turn the moons in our control into industrial buildings, military training camps, or resource mines. More than they already are, anyway.

Then there are the Independents, which are the very few who advocate a complete withdrawal from the Ethereal Collective or at minimum a renegotiation of the agreements made. This is only populated by a few minor Unions, but if you want to know why they aren't just purged entirely, it's because they have much larger supporters who protect them. These are definite allies moving forward.

There are Militarists, who advocate a massive increase in military power to rival the Sectoids, and the mandate of all Andromedon Unions to contribute to it for the good of the species. The only hindrance they are facing are questions of why the Andromedons should build their military larger than it already is, which leads into the following.

The Preservers are a splinter group of the Militarists, who advocate for the destruction of the Greater Hive Commanders, and like the Independents, it is a small collection backed by more powerful Unions as a proxy voice. It is one which is growing louder and louder, and there are major Unions which are looking for an excuse to force a vote on the issue.

However, if it comes down to it, if any major Union made disruptions like this, that is all that would be needed to shatter the calm the Federation exists in.

FEDERATION POWERS: Extremely limited. In theory they can impose species-wide declarations, but this rarely happens. Their greatest power is the military, but that is only used against outside threats and not for keeping the Federation in line, not like such would be allowed to begin with. The Federation also approves planets for colonization, although there is technically nothing from stopping Unions from establishing them on their own. They would just not receive official support, which is admittedly substantial.

FEDERATION GOALS: To prevent another Union War. It is not for the 'advancement of the Andromedon species' as some may say. It was never meant to be the primary governmental organization it is today, and is only used because we have nothing else. It appears bare and fake to other species because it was never supposed to endure this long. There are no long-term goals of the Federation itself, such would vary depending on the Unions.

Although I suppose you could add 'ensuring the survival of the Andromedons' to the short list of goals. In both stated goals, it has admittedly succeeded.

CONCLUSION: The Federation is a shell and a weakening adhesive to our species. We do not like being told what to do, and the limited powers of the Federation have ensured there has been no rebellion on that front, but this is only a temporary solution. It is a time bomb that is being accelerated by both the Sectoids and your own species.

Its days of existence are numbered, and then the Union Wars will conclude once and for all.