The fate of mankind hangs in the balance.
The
2123 election is solidly deadlocked . The prevailing government, under Grace Francis, has lost a vote of no confidence with a last-minute appeal turned down by the Security Council. A majority has not emerged but we know this much for sure: The United Nations as we know it no longer wields meaningful power...nation-states, which have held power in known space for more than a century, will fall to some new order, yet to emerge...but who will wield power in the century to come?
Member nations of the UN have issued orders to their respective starfleets, ordering them to remain on high alert and ready to destroy defectors on sight...these orders may never be carried out. Leopoldo Fransa is popular among members of the military elite, and the most recent vote shows he could very likely carry the day, and establish an interstellar military dictatorship that could last for a thousand years... There is talk of more paranoid, secret orders issued by the member Nations of NATO, who are rumored to be preparing for a national coup. In systems light-years away from earth, billions of humans who have never seen their species' homeworld are preparing for a colonial ground war, many are rallying around Chinese political scientist Xie Song Bo, Fransa's primary opponent, who has advocated for total colonial liberation, no matter the consequences. Every attempt to moderate between these two extremists have failed.
On the eve of the UN's formal dissolution, majority-members of the Security Council have moved a panel of 51 experts, in secret, to a remote PCD off of Mansel island. The proceedings of this conclave will be expunged from the international record immediately after the meeting adjourns. No names will be recorded, the decisions of the conclave will not be made public...but the Security Council guarantees that whatever the conclave recommends will be carried out by the combined political might of China, Brazil, and the European and African Union...against such an unprecedented political alliance, even intransigents like the United States and Russia cannot prevail.
YOU are a member of this conclave, charged with making a decision about what direction my Aurora campaign takes. I've played it, alone, for almost a year now, with almost 100+ years of well RPed game history in the balance. I will start writing fiction in a world controlled by whatever political order you steer humanity toward. Choose well.
If Leopoldo Fransa wins:Nations of Earth will relinquish control of their interstellar colonies. New, standardized governments will form on each world. Each world will develop according to the decisions of the planetary government. There will be no interplanetary government, save a weak "Concordance council" which will merely exist to maintain the true instrument of power.... a massive, completely indomitable starfleet, larger and more advanced than anything humanity has dreamed of, and solidly under the control of one man. Under this system, the petty bickering and border wars of individual nations will finally cease and each colony will be free to develop itself. Humanity will be militarily unmatched in this region of the galaxy. Ideally, interspecies war will never happen again, with one benevolent leader having a complete monopoly on all space-based power. Practically, of course, Fransa's "Concordance" could quickly devolve into a military dictatorship.
If Xie Song Bo WinsNations of earth will relinquish control of their interstellar colonies. New governments will form on each world according to the whims of their citizens. There will be no interplanetary government, no navy, no president of humanity...each world will govern itself entirely, build its own navy, and pursue its own interests. Humanity will become extraordinarily diverse: each world will likely develop into a separate society quite different from any other. Bo believes every interstellar battle yet fought has, in some way, involved a nation of Earth attempting to control one of its colonies, and the moment colonial control is relinquished there will be nothing more to fight about: each world will peacefully flourish in isolation. Practically, of course, Bo's "Free Worlds" could quickly devolve into lawless, warring states.
The conclave has 24 hours to make a decision...if there is a tie, the only possible outcome is war
Poll
