Zhu Que Directorate

Zhu Que Directorate 朱雀局 (Zhū Què Jú)
State Flag Seal
Motto
"Peace Through Sacrifice"
Anthem
Towards a Vermilion Dawn
c. 4005 photograph
Interstellar State
Capital:	New Fanrong
Official languages:	Zhu Que language
Currency:	Zhu Que Dollar ($)
Demonym:	Zhu Que, Zuke (colloquial)
Politics
Government:	Unitary constitutional directorate
- Director General:	Zheng Tang
Settled:	2912
Formation:	3222 (Independence declared)
Colours:	IGSA standard:              (Civil)              (Military)
Demographics
Population:	8.8 billion
Geography
Planet:	Luyten b
System:	Luyten System
Avg. distance from Earth:	12.2 ly
Orbital period:	18.6 d
Rotation period:	11.625 d
Surface gravity:	1.29 g
[Source]

“	Setting out to the stars and conquering a world is easy, setting down and governing is hard.	”
–Zhu Que proverb

The Zhu Que Directorate (Commonwealth Chinese 朱雀局, tr. Zhū Què Jú; Martian English: Dzuutsediikerat), also informally known as the Directorate, is the premier power within the Luyten's Star system, humanity's first extra solar colony and thus far the only inhabited planet with a breathable atmosphere outside of the Solar System.

History

Terraforming and settlement

Identified as a potentially habitable planet in the early twenty-first century, Luyten b was of interest for potential colonization for hundreds of years. Following on from the successful China National Space Administration's Zheng He mission transmitting back detailed images of Luyten b in 2245, plans for a colonization effort were drawn up in the mid twenty-third century. Analysis of the data transmitted indicated that the planet had a thin atmosphere, comparable to that of Mars, composed of carbon dioxide, molecular nitrogen and argon. It was determined that terraforming was required in order to make long term settlement viable within the system. Terraforming efforts on Mars had been slow, due to the logistical constraints and risk of collateral within the system. CNSA scientists determined that the most efficient means of rapidly altering the planet's atmospheric composition was to impact 15x10¹⁵ tons of ice ball asteroids onto the surface of the world. In 2380 the terraforming initiative began, with thousands of automated drones deployed to maneuver large asteroids taken from the Luyten's Star Oort Cloud, guide them towards Luyten b and impact onto the surface of the planet. The process was slow, taking approximately five centuries until atmospheric composition was deemed to be suitable to the introduction of algae species that could scrub the air of the remaining carbon dioxide to replace it with oxygen.

Throughout the terraforming process, advancements in propulsion technology had seen the development of faster drives allowing for the reduction in journey times between the stars, with humans venturing to the system for the first time in 2912. After arriving in orbit of Luyten b, an orbital habitat was constructed to serve as an intermediary stage between interstellar transports and surface landers. On December 5th 2912, the first humans set foot on the surface, still outfitted in reinforced Interface Suits, as the air was not safe for humans to breathe. Development of the colony was rapid, as construction drones deployed to the surface in advance of the colony ship had fabricated habitation domes. Additionally, the colonists had brought with them genetically engineered black leaved plants from Earth, propagating them around the initial landing site. Drones initially tasked with seeding algae were later re-purposed to seed the modified plant life across the surface of Luyten b.

With a predominantly Han Chinese ethnic makeup of colonists and with Luyten's Star falling within the ancient Chinese constellation of the Vermilion Bird of the South, the colonists dubbed their new world Zhu Que. As the first extrasolar colony, cooperation between the major Solar System powers had been key to the success of the project and jurisdiction of Zhu Que officially fell to the Interstellar Governed Space Authority, as a Celestial Colony, to prevent disputes between the domestic states over ownership of the world. Unofficially, private benefactors and financiers of the project maintained significant influence over the development of the colony, in particular Kimber Future Technologies which had secured a significant stake in the planet having provided the propulsion drives for the colonists.

Independence

While experiments on the logistical demands of extrasolar missions had been conducted prior to the expedition, the toll of a twenty-four year delay in communication between the Sol System and Luyten's Star became more apparent over time and the ideal of self-reliance became a core part of Zhu Que's fledgling culture as the need to adapt to overcome circumstance came to trump any official missives from Luna. The ideals of self-determination and individualist cooperation coupled with a new sense of Zhu Que nationalism eroded any previous loyalties to the nation states of the colonists' ancestors. Over the centuries tensions between the Zhu Que Colonial Government and IGSA only worsened, particularly as immigrants from the Solar System started to arrive in increased numbers when Earth became plagued by a series of Climate Disasters. With IGSA attentions focused on Earth, when news of the Crisis Declaration reached Zhu Que on October 23rd 3222, the Colonial Government voted unanimously in favour of secession from IGSA, with the director general of Kimber Future Technologies, assuming leadership of what he christened the Zhu Que Directorate. The local detachment of IGSA were helpless to prevent the secession as the Zhu Que contingent of their fleet defected to the newly declared state, with only the vessels crewed by natives of the Sol System remaining loyal. Outgunned and undermanned, cooler heads prevailed within IGSA detachment, and the decision was made to recognise Zhu Que as an independent state. A missive was sent back to IGSA headquarters on Luna to confirm this and after accounting for the time delay, Zhu Que recieved official recognition as the first Celestial State in 3247 and were subsequently invited to join IGSA as an equal partner.

Secession of the Zhu Que Directorate from direct IGSA sent shockwaves beyond Luyten's Star, as it highlighted the fragile position the Interstellar Governed Space Authority had found itself in. Over the next two centuries Zhu Que underwent increased industrialization, in preparation for when the planet's atmosphere reached a stable equilibrium. On March 1st 3432 the Director General officially declared the terraforming process to be complete, as atmospheric pressure and composition reached the ideal standard for humans to breathe.

Consolidation

Exploration of the Luyten System had initially been undertaken by the Zheng He probe, surveying the tidally locked rocky world of Luyten c, orbiting considerably closer to Luyten's Star than Zhu Que, as well as the tidally locked gas giants of Luyten d and Luyten e. The proximity of Luyten c to to Luyten's Star was determined to be detrimental to possible development of the planet beyond geological study, with it named Fenghuang after the mythical bird. Orbital stations had been built around the gas giants, named Guanyin and Xiwangmu by the colonial government, in the centuries since the colonization, as part of a mining operation based on the same model used on Jupiter and Saturn.

The mining platforms around the gas giants were seized by Zhu Que as the Directorate shifted focus into full production, determined to exploit the entirety of the system. Guanyin and Xiwangmu were strategically vital to the maintenance of the fledgling Zhu Que Navy as sources of readily extracted hydrogen fuel. The rapid increase in the size of the Zhu Que Navy was born from a paranoia that IGSA may try to wrest control of the Luyten System back from the Zhu Que Directorate. The threat posed by predatory corporations encroaching on the Luyten's Star Oort Cloud and the twin gas giants served as a further reinforced the belief that the expansion of the Zhu Que military was necessary.

In 3465 news of the formation of the Commonwealth of Earth and its secession from IGSA as a protectorate reached the Zhu Que Directorate. The Zhu Que Navy was put on high alert, with Earth no longer bound by IGSA law. In 3472 news of the formation the Commonwealth's unilateral demand declaration of war against all former colonies reached the system. Within months, the Zhu Que Directorate found their system space swarmed by corporate vessels backed by the newly formed Commonwealth Navy looking to expand Earth's interests into the system, free from IGSA restrictions on interference with foreign states. When the Zhu Que Navy opened fire upon the interlopers all out war broke out with the Commonwealth's Luyten Fleet.

The Vermilion War was a short but bloody affair, costing millions of lives for both sides. While the Zhu Que Navy stood victorious over their technologically superior foe, the citizenry of the Directorate were incensed by the attack, demanding retribution as public opinion spiked heavily in favour of a retaliatory strike against Earth. The logistics of waging an interstellar war were considered by the Director General and his closest advisers and it was deemed to be a costly endeavor that served little tangible benefit to the Directorate. Instead his strategists advised taking advantage of Zhu Que's unique advantage in being in much closer proximity to several star systems compared with their distance from Earth.

The Procyon System was chosen as the target for Zhu Que's first Reclamation Fleet. With a proximity of 1.2 light years, the mission provided tangible justice for both the crews and the populace. While the binary star system lacked celestial bodies of worth, it possessed a wealth of mineral rich asteroids caught in the gravity well of the two stars and it was known to be home to several Earth based mining operations. While the citizens of the Directorate were not promised a strike against Earth, they were guaranteed an attack on the same corporations that had shed Zhu Que blood. The fleet set off in 3475 and arrived in the first quarter of 3476. The strike was swift and decisive, crippling the corporate fleets and seizing their mining stations. With the usurping of Procyon from Earth's sphere of influence, the Zhu Que Directorate fully demonstrated its capability as an Interstellar State.

The Procyon Reclamation Fleet returned to the Luyten System in 3477 and the crews received a heroes' welcome. A national holiday was declared as Victory Day on June 30th 3477 and parades were held in every major city across the planet. The nationalist fervor that swept the nation soothed tensions that had been brewing in recent years. While the Directorate had learned from the mistakes of Earth, carefully safeguarding their ecosystem and preventing mineral exploitation from taking place on the world, they had never anticipated to be home to such a large population in such a small period of time. The infrastructure simply had not been in place to handle millions of refugees from Earth, as the Zhu Que model of development was focused only on domestic growth with moderate sustainable immigration, and could not cope with such a large extraneous variable. For two centuries the solution had been to simply proportionally distribute resources in order to accommodate the unexpected growth, but as the population continued to grow at a faster rate that anticipated, by the end of the 35th century, Zhu Que was stretched to its limit. What had been intended at the outset to be a post-scarcity society was instead a quagmire of inequality and stagnation.

Procyon had served as a watershed moment to address this problem. It was simple, if Zhu Que could not sustain its large population, the excess citizenry could be put to use securing the stars for the good of the Directorate and safeguard it from the threat of Solar retribution. In 3480 a law was passed mandating that full citizenship rights were only be extended to those that had served in the armed forces, with the guarantee of a higher standard of living and promise of a full income career for those that enlisted. Twenty-four years after the attack on Procyon had taken place, the Commonwealth Navy sent another, larger fleet, to pacify the Luyten System in 3488, and the new initiative was put to its first real test.

Luyten's War

In 3500, the Commonwealth Navy's Luyten Fleet arrived in the system, signaling the beginning of what would later be known as Luyten's War. They adopted a different strategy from the ill fated one used by its predecessor in the Vermilion War. Instead of engaging in a coordinated rush against the Zhu Que Navy, the fleet began by systematically targeting Zhu Que space stations in Luyten's Oort Cloud, before retreating into deep space. This persisted for years as a cat and mouse game played out between the two navies while reinforcements from Earth trickled in following the success of the Eden Campaign. By 3511 Zhu Que had lost access to the resources of the Outer Belt and was limited to the inner system, as slowly and methodically, the outposts of the Directorate fell. The two fleets finally came to a head in 3512 at the Battle of Guanyin, which saw the Zhu Que Navy defeated by the reinforced Commonwealth fleet. With their major shipyards and refueling stations lost, and the bulk of their fleet destroyed, the remnants of the Zhu Que Navy limped back towards Luyten's Star.

The Director General issued a missive to his fleet to hard burn towards Fenghuang and to abandon the defence of their homeworld if they wished to win the war. With the planet on a full war footing, the Directorate was prepared for when the Commonwealth Navy entered Zhu Que's orbit, firing on the fleet with planetary railguns and inflicting heavy losses. Antimatter weapons were sanctioned for use against the railgun emplacements by the Commonwealth Navy until the guns fell silent. Commonwealth marines were deployed to the surface and the war on the ground began. They faced severe resistance from the Zhu Que Army, bolstered by a heavily armed populace.

With the Commonwealth Navy focused on the invasion, the Director General instructed the Zhu Que Navy to hard burn for Guanyin, refuel and await further instruction. Only a day later the Director General offered an official surrender to the invading forces, inviting them to disarm his military, while he sent an encrypted tight beam to the Zhu Que Navy to strike at the Commonwealth fleet. As the officials descended planet side to formally accept the surrender, the Zhu Que Navy remnants launched their surprise attack against an unprepared foe, specifically targeting their interstellar capable warships in a hit and run attack. Simultaneously, the Zhu Que Army turned their guns on their occupiers, leading to an outbreak of all out war on the surface. The admiral of the Commonwealth Navy's Luyten Fleet was detained by the Director General's forces. Accused of deceit and perfidy by the indignant Commonwealth officials, the Director General had them imprisoned.

Without a means of leaving the system and with their commanding officers imprisoned, the Luyten Fleet fell into disarray. Some vessels turned their weapons against the planet in vengeful retribution against their deceivers, others attempted to flee into the Oort Cloud, in the hope of reinforcements coming to bolster them. Zhu Que suffered during the chaos, with cities leveled and civilians slaughtered in the millions. The capital, Fanrong, did not survive the carnage, hit by a salvo of antimatter missiles. A truce was forced when the last vestiges of the Commnonwealth Luyten Fleet that still hung in Zhu Que orbit were neutralized. The Directorate stood victorious, but at a high cost to the planet. The Director General sent a message to the Sol System warning the Commonwealth government that any further action against the Luyten System would invite a retaliatory strike against Earth itself.

The Zhu Que Navy consolidated its position and prepared for further conflict, their fleet bolstered by captured Commonwealth vessels. On the ground the citizenry were mobilized en masse, in preparation for a second invasion attempt. The Guanyin Shipyards were reclaimed towards the end of the year with production of new vessels resumed by 3513. A near endless stream of Commonwealth Navy reinforcements poured into the system for the next twenty four years, their ships picked off, boarded and captured by the seasoned Zhu Que Navy. In 3538 the Directorate received a message acknowledging their threat and issuing a call for an end to the hostilities between the two states.

On April 20th 3550, fifty years after the war had begun within the Luyten System, a Zhu Que delegation arrived on Luna to sign the Earth-Zhu Que Peace Treaty, moderated by IGSA. The treaty outlined that Earth was to recognise the sovereignty of the Zhu Que Directorate claims over the Luyten and Procyon systems, so long as free passage was maintained for commercial vessels within Zhu Que space. In turn, Zhu Que recognised the sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Earth's ownership of Mercury, Venus, Ceres, and many Trans-Neptunian objects, as well as their extrasolar claims in the Centauri and Teegarden systems, with the same stipulations on commercial vessels in place. Additionally, the Commonwealth of Earth and the Zhu Que Directorate were granted readmission into IGSA, along with ascent to the Joint Security Council as their first permanent members.

Interstellar Influence

When the Zhu Que diplomatic delegation returned in 3563 with IGSA and Commonwealth representatives, they found themselves greeted by a society vastly different from the one they had left. For while they had only experienced three years relative to the final shots of the war were fired in 3538, it had been twenty-five years for the people of Luyten's System. New Fanrong now stood on the site of the former capital, the Zhu Que Navy had not only been replenished but bolstered with new ships based on Commonwealth designs and the people now stood dedicated to a single ideal, the freedom of Zhu Que. In many ways the war had been a blessing for the Directorate: it had solved the overpopulation crisis; provided the opportunity to rebuild their antiquated cities; gave a resolute justification for increased militarization; and it had cultivated a jingoistic zeal within the populace that reinforced their loyalty to the regime.

The treaty with the Commonwealth of Earth was met with disappointment by the Zhu Que Diet, as it robbed the regime of an enemy to fight. Many ministers had not lived through the worst of the war, remembering only the quarter century of victories, and were enamored at the thought of interstellar conflict. It took two years of lobbying and debates by the diplomatic corps before the Zhu Que Diet voted in favor of officially recognizing the Zhu Que Treaty in 3565. The Commonwealth Embassy was built in 3570 alongside the IGSA Zhu Que Office, a stipulation of the Directorate's membership of the organisation, following five years of protests against the construction of both buildings by the New Fanrong citizenry.

During this time the hawks in the Zhu Que Diet had only grown more vocal, fanning the flames of the ignited passions within a populace opposed to any kind of foreign intervention. As the tensions mounted, the Zhu Que diplomatic corps brought the status of Ungoverned Zones as potential prospects for Zhu Que expansion and provide legal justification for armed conflict with rival factions, in an attempt to prevent their own government from instigating a war with Earth. After consulting government astronomers, navigators and naval personnel, the Zhu Que Diet deemed Gliese 205 to be a valid target. Home to a rocky planet and a gas giant, strategic gain was deemed justifiable enough to risk sending a fleet through deep space. Additionally, at a distance of only 10 light years from Luyten's Star, but 18 light years from Earth, a response from the Commonwealth would arrive too late. In 3575, the Zhu Que Navy 205 Fleet departed the system.

Arriving in 3585, the 205 Fleet found a barely inhabited system, populated with research stations, a handful of mining outposts and a few corporate prospectors. Without a shot being fired by either side, Gliese 205 submitted to the Zhu Que Navy. Corporate negotiators simply agreed to funnel resources to Zhu Que instead of the Commonwealth. The fleet command pointed out that Gliese 205's distance from Earth placed it at a considerably lower priority than their primary claims in the Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, CN Leonis, Lalande, Lacaille and Teegarden's Star systems. The corporate collaborators confirmed this suspicion, citing that Gliese 205's only real value was for gas and mineral mining, which could be extracted much closer to home for the Commonwealth of Earth. At a distance of 18 ly from Earth, only commercial projects had ever ventured out this far and they didn't care whom they served, so long as they got paid.

The 205 Fleet returned in 3596, accompanied by commercial vessels. The Zhu Que Diet, considerably different from the one that had sanctioned the mission, conducted a full expenditures review into the fleet deployment. Considered to have only provided a minor advantage to Zhu Que, providing resources readily available within their own system and the much closer Procyon System. Additionally, seizing the system had not imparted the strategic blow against the Commonwealth that had been hoped for, and in fact transferred their responsibility for Gliese 205 over to the Zhu Que Directorate in 3615.

In the interim, news had reached Zhu Que of an attempted rebellion against the Commonwealth of Earth's regime on Eden. With open conquest no longer an option, the Director General saw an opportunity for soft power and subterfuge on the far flung colony. The Zhu Que Security Council convened in 3600 on the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the Luyten's War to consolidate plans to reduce the Commonwealth of Earth to a position where they could no longer threaten the interests of the Directorate. Operating within the terms of the Earth-Zhu Que treaty, the Security Council sent commercial ships representing KimberTek interests to the Teegarden's Star System crewed by members of the Directorate Marine Corps. Simultaneously, weapons were smuggled into the system on other corporate vessels, intended for the rebels. The forty-eight year round trip and long term investment were considered to be worth the opportunity to cripple Earth.

At the close of 3628 the first Zhu Que ships entered the Teegarden's Star System, arriving in Eden orbit in 3629 after a journey that lasted just over three years relative to the crew, the vanguard of a continuous stream of ships that operated on a year long rotation before making the return trip. Descending to the surface of the alien yet familiar moon, Directorate special forces made contact with one of the more moderate resistance groups out in the hinterlands of Eden known as the Edenite Brotherhood. The Brotherhood were suspicious of these squat, muscular and heavily armed outsiders at first, convinced they were yet more spawn of the Satan's seed. The head of the special forces, fluent in Edenite, explained they were not from Earth, but from a far off land beyond the stars that had done battle against a common foe. Zhu Que had been a name that only existed in legend to the people of Eden before the occupation came. Since then it had become a symbol of hope, as tales of Zhu Que defeating the Commonwealth had inspired the resistance, proving that their occupiers could be vanquished. Convinced by their stories and animosity towards the hated Cainites, the Edenite Brotherhood accepted the assistance of the Zhu Que, considering them to be a sign from God that their cause was just.

Over the next two decades Zhu Que operatives built up the Edenite Brotherhood into a force that could potentially stand against the occupation forces. The Brotherhood were first put to the test in 3656, when they engaged in open warfare with the Commonwealth Edenite Army after a bloodbath on Ham saw thousands of the faithful dead. Zhu Que special forces analysts determined that they had underestimated the response of the occupation government and restructured their plans. While continuing to arm and train the Edenite Brotherhood, promising that another rebellion would be successful and encouraging sustained violence against the occupation, they in fact subversively prevented the resistance movement from growing for the next half century, cultivating a hardened paramilitary force for when they deemed the time to be right. The Edenite Brotherhood shifted their focus on marketing the movement to the wider populace; infiltrating corporate and government agencies; and switching from mass casualty terror attacks to exclusively striking strategic targets.

On the domestic front Zhu Que underwent heavy militarization over the course of the 37th century, with focus put on increasing the size of the Zhu Que Navy and ensuring all citizens were trained to repel an invasion. The gas giants were now home to extensive mining operations and vast shipyards. The Zhu Que Navy Fleet Command had been moved to Tianshi staion, that had been constructed in orbit around Guanyin. Developments in reinforced materials had also made Fenghuang more attractive to the prospect of extracting resources on the fringes of the terminator line and several subterranean settlements were excavated to support these mining initiatives. While the corporations looked inwards to exploit the system, the government remained focused on their extra-luyten holdings and the possible external threats to their regime. The Procyon System had been given over entirely to mining conglomerates operating on an exclusive contract with Zhu Que. The Gilese 205 System had proven to be a logistical nightmare to maintain hold of, with a twenty-year rotation of Zhu Que Navy vessels required just to protect their interests in Gilese 205 from corporate wars and opportunistic piracy.

Despite paper guarantees of peace and IGSA membership, the primary concern of every Director General since the Luyten System War had been security. Seeking allies against an expansionist Earth, the Zhu Que diplomatic corps reached out to the other powers. Talks were held on Luna with the Martian Federation in 3612, resulting in a treaty being signed between the two nations that saw the Martian Federation rejoin IGSA as a member state. As Zhu Que foreign policy shifted to accruing soft power against the Commonwealth, the diplomatic corps aimed to use IGSA as a means of enforcing greater checks and balances on Earth. In 3625 the Martian embassy in New Fanrong was opened to great fanfare, with a declaration of cooperation being made by the Martian ambassador to Zhu Que. Mars and Zhu Que shared many values that saw their peoples welcomed on both sides. The only points of contention that existed were in the restricted freedoms Zhu Que citizens enjoyed compared to their Martian counterparts and the overbearing presence of the military in the lives of the Zhu Que citizenry.

Delegations sent to the Republic of Nova and the State of Tranquility were markedly less successful. The interests of the two states aligned far closer with the Commonwealth of Earth, their closest trading partner, than with a militaristic empire beyond the scope of feasible bilateral relations. Similarly the Union of Saturn remained unconcerned with extra-solar affairs and did not want to risk inviting invasion from the Commonwealth by making deals with their rivals. The Jovian Interstellar Republic, seeking ascent to IGSA as an Interstellar State, sought out the Zhu Que Diet to support their bid in 3626, as they had met opposition from both the Commonwealth of Earth and the Martian Federation. The Zhu Que diplomatic corps spent a decade working out an arrangement to secure Jupiter's membership in IGSA while appeasing their Martian allies, with the Interstellar Cooperation Pact signed between the three states in 3636.

The Zhu Que Navy Jupiter Fleet arrived in 3660, as one of the stipulations of the Interstellar Cooperation Pact was the permission for both Mars and Zhu Que to maintain a military presence in Jovian territory to safeguard trade routes. Of course, the real purpose of the fleet was to provide a first strike ability against the Commonwealth of Earth in the event of a war, with a permanent military presence in the Sol System. The Commonwealth of Earth spent the next six years petitioning IGSA to force the withdrawal of an extrasolar military from the Sol System, but were voted down by the members of the Interstellar Cooperation Pact every time the motion was brought before the General Assembly.

ALIAS Crisis

In 3666 ALIAS was installed in Neo Arcadia by the Elysium Mons State Government in direct contravention of the INTPOL ban on artificial intelligence being incorporated into vital services. Unlike the previously limited FRIEND system that had acted in a subservient assistant role, ALIAS was intended to direct the lives of its subjects. This lead to uproar on Mars and throughout the system. An emergency IGSA conference was convened on Luna with the representatives of the major powers in attendance. The Martian representative tabled a motion to repeal the INTPOL ban, as he was confident in his government's ability to maintain control over ALIAS, citing that it was merely the final product of FRIEND's evolution. The Commonwealth representative argued against the motion, highlighting the dangers posed by unrestricted artificial intelligence in roles of responsibility and citing failed arcology projects to utilize such systems. In accordance with IGSA protocol it was put to a vote.

Mars, Saturn and Tranquility voted in favour of the repeal. Earth, Jupiter and Qaf voted against the repeal. Nova abstained on the vote, due to conflicting interests with both sides. There was surprise at the Tranquility representative voting in favor of the motion, but they cited the interests of the Xu Intelligence Corporaton for backing the repeal. The Zhu Que delegation sat with the casting vote on the issue and were lobbied heavily by both sides. The Martian representatives cited their alliance as reason enough to trust their judgement and that enforcing the ban would lead to war on Mars. The Jovian representatives cited the promise Zhu Que had made to protect Jupiter from possible threats, claiming that an artificial intelligence of this magnitude was an existential threat. Swayed by their old alliance, the Zhu Que delegation voted in favour of the repeal, gaining them the animosity of Earth, Jupiter and Qaf. Jupiter immediately revoked the Interstellar Cooperation Pact, demanding the Zhu Que Navy Jupiter Fleet withdraw from their space. A motion was brought by the Commonwealth of Earth to expel the Zhu Que Navy from the Sol System, that passed six votes to two. Only Mars voted with Zhu Que to maintain their military presence in the system and the fleet was forced to withdraw at the end of the year.

The Nova, Qafi and Tranquilan delegations sent reports back to their respective governments on the new state of affairs. On Mars the people of Neo Arcadia complacently adapted to the change, barely noticing any difference in how their lives were managed before ALIAS. In the hinterlands of Mars, outside the cities, many Martians took up arms against the regime, fearful of what ALIAS represented. The Elysium Mons State Government was advised by ALIAS to detain and reeducate the dissenters to ensure future cooperation with the regime. The Martian Navy was pulled back into Mars orbit and a missive was issued stating that their borders were now closed to outsiders. Over the next two decades ALIAS spread to every corner of Mars, propagating itself into every available node and quelling any resistance it met in the process.

In 3679, the Jupiter Fleet returned to Luyten's System. The Zhu Que Diet congratulated the diplomatic corps on repealing the Artificial Intelligence Ban, as it suited the current corporate interests of KimberTek. The Martian Embassy on Zhu Que expressed concern over the motion to repeal the ban being passed. The ambassador and her staff while staunch patriots, were not keen on the installation of ALIAS, believing that the subservient FRIEND more than suited their current needs. Upon receiving communiques from Mars of an apparent civil war having broken out on Mars, they petitioned the Director General to send a force to liberate their planet from ALIAS. The Zhu Que Diet convened to discuss the matter, weighing up the ethical and moral obligations. The Martian ambassador to Zhu Que argued that a military response would be in accordance with the terms of the Mars-Zhu Que treaty, to protect Mars. The Zhu Que diplomatic corps reasoned that a military response could only be carried out in support of the government, and the government supported installation of ALIAS. The Director General argued that if it was just for them to aid the freedom fighters on Eden, then supporting the struggle on Mars was equally justified. The corporate heads and military council met to discuss the matter further, bringing a clash of business interests with strategic feasibility. On paper the Zhu Que Navy was larger and better equipped than the Martian Navy, capable of winning in a straight up fight. The primary issues were securing the planet and eliminating ALIAS. The Zhu Que war machine was trained for defensive wars, not offensive ones.

It was put to a vote in the Zhu Que Diet whether military intervention was sanctioned. The motion to declare war on Mars was passed with a slim majority and the Zhu Que Liberation Fleet began preparations to deploy for Mars in 3680. Additionally, a secondary force, the Zhu Que Reinforcement Fleet was sanctioned for the forty-seven year journey to the Trappist System, to safeguard Cariocecus from ALIAS. With such a large force assembled, a slower burn was mandated with both fleets projected to leave the system by the end of the year. The Martian ambassador understood that the most likely scenario that the fleets would encounter would be planets already subsumed into ALIAS, but that Zhu Que owed them a shot at trying to liberate her people.

Great Interstellar War

The Zhu Que Navy Liberation Fleet, under the command of Admiral Archelaus Keys arrived in the Sol System in 3692. Challenged on their approach by IGSA Peacekeepers in the Outer Belt, the Admiral explained his intent, as honoring the terms of the Mars-Zhu Que treaty to eliminate a threat against the Martian people. The admiral was informed that ALIAS had liquidated the Martian Government and subsumed the entirety of Martian Federation to its will. Prior to that, the Martian Civil War had cost millions of lives, with a humanitarian crisis engulfing the system in the interim years, as Martians attempted to flee their homeworld. The majority of Martians, however, were content with surrendering their will to the collective, having been conditioned over two decades to peaceably accept ALIAS into their lives. The Sol System itself had become a war zone, after the Commonwealth of Earth had proposed reintroducing the Artificial Intelligence ban in 3691 in response to ALIAS gaining control of Mars. The Martian Navy had gone on the offensive, with a fleet assumed to be under direct control of ALIAS deployed to Luna, triggering the Earth-Mars War. In response to the declaration of war against Earth, the Jovian Interstellar Republic declared war on Mars. An Erpublik Nova Navy fleet was reported to have arrived at the beginning of the year, their intent unknown.

The Martian Navy, coordinated by ALIAS, had crushed the Commonwealth Navy Earth Fleet during the decisive Battle of Luna. The IGSA Headquarters on Luna were targeted with antimatter missiles and destroyed in their entirety. Only the timely arrival of the bulk of the Jovian Interstellar Navy, commanded by Tero Klerkse, had prevented a Martian assault on Earth, at the cost of an opportunistic Saturnian fleet arriving within Jovian Interstellar Republic space. With the Commonwealth Navy crippled and the majority of the Jovian Interstellar Navy forced to hard burn from Earth to Jupiter, the Saturnian Navy conducted a series of hit and run attacks against the Jovian Interstellar Republic, prioritizing attacks on the Callisto shipyards and the Ganymede agricultural districts before retreating to retrograde orbit before enemy vessels arrived to repel them. Upon arrival within Jupiter orbit, the Jovian Interstellar Navy engaged the Saturnian forces, initially beating them back. The status quo was disturbed only a fortnight later with the arrival of Martian Navy vessels, with the Jovian Interstellar Navy unable outmaneuver the homogeneous simultaneous command of ALIAS, that forced them onto the defensive. The arrival of the Erpublik Nova Navy Solar Fleet months later further tipped the scales, striking the Martian Navy's Jupiter Fleet in a concerted attack that forced ALIAS to withdraw vessels from the Galilean Moons. However, with vital targets already crippled, the Martian strategy merely switched into one of attrition, with the support of the Saturnian Navy now exclusively raiding internal Jovian shipping lanes. Upon providing the situation update, the IGSA Peacekeepers petitioned Admiral Keys to break off his planned assault on Mars to instead join the coalition of the willing in eliminating the Martian Navy Jupiter Fleet and the Saturnian Navy.

Entering Jupiter orbit in early 3693, the Zhu Que Navy Liberation Fleet engaged the Martian Navy Jupiter Fleet and Saturnian Navy in a coordinated assault with the Erpublik Nova Navy and Jovian Interstellar Navy Auxiliary near Thebe. The Battle of Thebe was a short but decisive affair, with the firepower of the three fleets overwhelming the Martian Navy. However, ALIAS had predicted the attack was the most likely course of action and had withdrawn the majority of the fleet before the Zhu Que Navy vessels arrived, leaving behind only a token force to protect the retreat and sacrificing its Saturnian Navy allies in the process. With the immediate threat eliminated, the Zhu Que Navy assisted their new allies by issuing a warning to the Union of Saturn to withdraw vessels from Jovian space or face retribution. With its shipyards crippled along with food and oxygen production severely hit, the Jovian Interstellar Republic declared an official state of emergency. Supplies and vessels were requisitioned to bolster the capabilities of the three fleets. The Executive Director of Jupiter, Muirgen Albero, demanded an audience with Admiral Archelaus Keys and Admiral Joshua Gamaliel of the Erpublik Nova Navy Solar Fleet to explain their intentions. Albero was suspicious of the Zhu Que Navy presence, stating they were in violation of their formal expulsion from the Sol System. Additionally she voiced her opinion that the Jovian people still felt betrayed in the face of their former allies voting to repeal the INTPOL ban that had triggered the ALIAS crisis. Keys outlined the new position of the Zhu Que Diet, in light of the atrocities conducted on Mars, and the regret felt by his government over their part in the crisis. He offered his full support to the Jovian Interstellar Republic, promising to fulfill the terms of their old alliance. Gamaliel took a pragmatic stance in the proceedings, declaring that the existential threat of ALIAS outweighed any previous animosity between nations, stating he was prepared to withdraw his own fleet from the Solar System if Keys' forces were expelled from Jovian space. Albero sanctioned the fleets to remain in Jovian space on the condition that a formal pact was agreed between the three powers until the ALIAS threat was eliminated.

In the interim, the Martian Navy had regrouped in the Asteroid Belt and ALIAS switched focus to capturing Ceres from the Commonwealth of Earth. The Commonwealth Navy's Ceres Fleet retreated from the dwarf planet, avoiding the same fate that had befallen the Luna Fleet, hard burning towards Jovian space. Even without support from the Commonwealth Navy, Ceres was far from defenseless. Ancient rail-guns installed in centuries long past to destroy asteroids were activated that hindered the advance of the Martian Fleet, until antimatter missiles were target locked on all weapon emplacements and the guns fell silent. The Martian Marine Corps were be met with fierce resistance from the domestic security forces, determined to not let their homeland fall to the invaders. The Ceres Fleet arrived in Jupiter orbit four days after the invasion had started. With their transponders offline in order to evade the Martian Navy, the fleet was intercepted by vessels of the three navies patrolling Jovian Space leading to a brief standoff between the four forces. The admiral of the Ceres Fleet identified herself as Katja Cantrell, seeking safe harbor in the Jovian Interstellar Republic.

Cantrell's fleet was absorbed into the wider coalition forces after an audience with Albero. The admiral requested that the coalition forces hard burn for Ceres, believing they had the numerical superiority required to destroy the Martian Navy in a straight fight. Keys determined ALIAS would anticipate this maneuver and would have withdrawn the essential fleet back to Mars. Furthermore, in a straight fight he did not believe the four fleets, operated by independent admirals, could defeat the ALIAS controlled Martian Navy. Only a fleet under a unified command stood a chance at defeating the Martian Navy. Keys proposed that the Ceres Fleet, Liberation Fleet and Solar Fleet don the colours of the Jovian Navy to provide a single unified front to oppose ALIAS and nominate a commander of the joint forces. Keys nominated Jovian Fleet Admiral Tero Klerkse, citing his rout of the Martian Navy over Earth as just cause for his appointment. Cantrell agreed to recognize Klerkse as her superior, grateful for his part in saving Earth from a Martian invasion, followed by Gamaliel who saw the wisdom in serving as a cohesive unit.

Klerkse deduced that a stalemate had now developed between the two sides that only served to benefit ALIAS. The Martian Navy held de facto control of the inner planets while the Coalition Forces could only effectively project power from Jupiter. All of the simulations determined that departure from Jupiter would invite attack from Martian vessels and Saturnian vessels within the system but that inaction would forfeit control of Earth to Mars. Keys brought forward a proposition that the coalition forces should hit Mars directly, as a means to cripple their civilian economy and force the Martian Navy to withdraw into permanent Mars orbit. With Klerkse's blessing, he devised a strategy that would see the deployment of a single strike force on a one way trip, with the bulk of the forces remaining in Callisto orbit to protect the shipyards. Keys volunteered to lead the mission, citing it was the original purpose of his presence in the system, but Klerkse vetoed the decision. Instead Admiral Cantrell was selected, as she expressed her desire to repay the debt she owed to Jupiter and simultaneously take revenge against Mars even if it came at the cost of her own life.

The attack had the desired result but also the predicted outcome. Antimatter missiles hit the capital of Neo Arcadia, the major metropolitan areas of Olympus Mons and the Tharsis Space Elevator at the cost of Cantrell's forces. The expected response from the Saturnian Navy came as they attempted to sack Callisto, but their attack was halted and their vessels forced to retreat after engaging the coalition forces. ALIAS immediately abandoned the Siege of Ceres, withdrawing all forces back to Mars. The stalemate had been broken, but the war had not been won. Conflict remained throughout the system, with the Commonwealth of Earth forced to concede that they had lost control of the Kuiper Belt to the Saturnian Navy. Klerkse drew up plans for further strikes, intending to utilize asteroids from the Inner Belt as projectiles to strike the red planet with. Before the plan could be put into action the unexpected happened: ALIAS issued a wide beam communication to the entire Solar System offering a ceasefire to all forces on condition that it was recognized as the sovereign ruler of Mars.

Military leaders within the coalition wished to reject the ceasefire, with Klerkse advocating for a follow up strike to cripple Mars. Civilian leaders within the coalition were more open to the terms of the ceasefire, highlighting their own vulnerable state with Callisto, Ceres, Ganymede and Luna lying in ruin. Protests throughout the system denouncing the war and favoring peace put further strain on the tenability of continuing the fighting. With both the IGSA headquarters and Luna embassies destroyed, political representation of the interstellar states was limited solely to their military leaders within the system. A special summit was convened on Ceres with representatives from Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Nova, Saturn and Zhu Que in attendance. While the majority of representatives were keen for a lasting peace, the formal recognition of ALIAS became a stumbling block in the negotiations, with demands made to sanction ALIAS for the war crimes it had committed against Earth and Jupiter. ALIAS reasoned it could not be held to account as it was not bound by a mortal frame to be imprisoned and could merely offer up the officers that had conducted the attacks at its request. ALIAS in turn refused to hand over these officers unless both Keys and Klerkse were handed over to the Federation for their part in the antimatter attacks against Mars. The governments of Earth and Jupiter refused to hand over Klerkse, a vaunted war hero to both nations. The fate of Keys was left to a hearing of the assembled representatives. Secretary General Shui Sun of Earth, Executive Director Muirgen Albero of Jupiter and Admiral Joshua Gamaliel of Nova voted to exonerate him of all charges to the chagrin of the Martian and Saturnian delegates. After months of deliberation, the peace talks broke down on May 1st 3694, sparking the next phase of the war.

Emancipation of Eden

Work in progress This section is currently unfinished. The author(s) apologise for the inconvenience.

Geography

Zhu Que is a Super-Earth, with a mass of 2.89 M_E and a radius of 1.5 R_E with a gravitational acceleration of 12.6 m/s², or 1.29 g. As Zhu Que orbits quite close to its host star, one full revolution around Luyten's Star takes about 18.6 days at an average distance of 13,613,406 kilometers, an orbit far closer than even Mercury maintains around Sol. However, because the host star is so dim, Zhu Que falls right within the system's habitable zone and only receives 6% more starlight than Earth. While most planets this close to their parent star would be tidally locked, Zhu Que has a moderately high orbital eccentricity of 0.18, similar to mercury, which allowed the planet to be captured in a spin-orbit resonance. The length of a day on Zhu Que is approximately 11.625 earth days.

Habitability

Close on fifteen hundred years since terraforming began, Zhu Que has an average surface temperature of about 292 K (19 °C; 66 °F), very similar to that of 21st century Earth.

Politics

Government

The Zhu Que Directorate has a parliamentary government comprised of a legislative body, the Zhu Que Diet, that serves to advise the head of state, the Director General. The Director General was classically chosen from the corporate executives of Zhu Que, but since 3480 candidates have exclusively been selected from the ranks of the Zhu Que military. The Zhu Que Diet is comprised of two houses, divided into thirty and one-hundred-and-twenty seats respectively: The Executive Board and the Legislative Conference. The right to vote in both the Director General and Zhu Que Diet elections is guaranteed to all Zhu Que citizens.

The purpose of the Legislative Conference is to draft and debate bills before sending them to the Executive Board for approval. Members of the Legislative Conference are elected from across the breadth of Zhu Que society, with the only requirement for candidacy that a persons is eighteen years or older. The Executive Board consists of thirty executives tasked with the direct management and handling of Zhu Que affairs, forming the Director General's cabinet. Zhu Que Departments are not represented in the Legislative Conference, instead managed by a Governor who reports to the Minister of Departmental Affairs within the Executive Board. Members of the Executive board have been exclusively drawn from the ranks of the Zhu Que armed forces since 3480, with both serving and former servicemen eligible to be candidates. Calls for reform of the Executive Board have been made over the centuries, but have routinely been met with opposition from the jingoistic populace in light of the multitude of hostile threats faced by the Zhu Que Directorate.

Departments

Zhu Que is recognised by IGSA to have sole rights to the Luyten System, including the planets of Fenghuang, Guanyin and Xiwangmu as well as the entirety of the system's Oort Cloud. Additionally, Zhu Que lays claim to the resources of the nearby Procyon System, where it maintains a permanent military presence, although these claims are not officially recognised by IGSA, that classifies the Procyon System as an Interstellar Zone.

Foreign Relations

Main articles: Earth-Zhu Que relations; Eden-Zhu Que relations

Zhu Que is a permanent member of the Interstellar Governed Space Authority, a signatory of INTPOL and a founding member of the Interstellar Cooperation Pact. Zhu Que maintains a cordial relationship with Jupiter in the Solar System and a close partnership with Eden in the Teegarden System, notably maintaining the only foreign embassy present upon the capital of the latter. Zhu Que maintains a Non-Aggression Pact with Earth and Mars following the Great Solar War, but bilateral relationships between the states remains strained.

Military

The armed forces of the Zhu Que Directorate consist of three professional service branches: the Zhu Que Navy, Zhu Que Marine Corps and the Zhu Que Army. The forces are managed by the Ministry of War and controlled by the Executive Board. The Commander-in-Chief is the Director General, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance. The Armed Forces are charged with protecting Zhu Que and its departments, promoting the Directorate's interstellar security interests and supporting interstellar peacekeeping efforts in ungoverned zones. They are active and regular participants in IGSA operations, particularly in ALIAS containment and anti-piracy roles. Naval fleets operate outside of Zhu Que Directorate space in the Leonis Systems, Procyon System, Solar System and Teegarden's Star System. The Zhu Que armed forces play a heavy role in the lives of the populace, with military service a fundamental part of the nation's cultural identity.

Economy

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Culture

Work in progress This section is currently unfinished. The author(s) apologise for the inconvenience.

Literature

The literature of the Zhu Que Directorate has evolved considerably since the foundation of the colony, moving from classical idealistic narratives to contemporary works focused almost exclusively on war. Classical Zhu Que literature centered on the achievements of mankind is highly regarded outside of the Luyten System, with publications commonplace throughout governed space. Contemporary Zhu Que literature has been less well received by critics outside of the homeworld, with the normalization of war crimes prevalent in recent works scrutinized for glamorizing such acts.

The first written fiction on Zhu Que reflected the harsh realities faced by the first colonists, with the fledgling Colonial genre focused around the themes of camaraderie overcoming adversity and introspection of the human mind's capability to adapt to extreme conditions. Popular titles from the time include Vermilion Sky, a thriller depicting the events of an explosion within a domed habitat and the sacrifices required to repair it, and 279, the story of a young colonist coming to terms with the alien nature of the world framed against the passage of a single Zhu Que Day. The settlement of further worlds prompted the rise of speculative fiction beyond the scope of the Luyten System, particularly a renewed fascination with the search for extraterrestrial life. The constraints of the light barrier poured further fuel onto fiction exploring wormholes, with the novel Instant Light, a story depicting instantaneous travel between Earth and Zhu Que, considered the pinnacle of the genre. Towards the end of colonial rule, literature came to reflect the prevailing sentiments held by the people of Zhu Que. Stories centered around the themes of self determination and Zhu Que national identity became increasingly popular, including the revolutionary Towards A Vermilion Future, a speculative piece that explored the timeline of events that could lead to an independent Zhu Que. The book was initially banned by the Zhu Que Colonial Government out of fears it would inspire rebellion, as the climax of the novel included an armed uprising against the establishment.

The declaration of independence in the thirty-third century would only serve to reinforce the popularity of the Self Determination genre.

Holidays

There are four major national holidays in the Zhu Que Calendar, each celebrating significant milestones in the nation's history.

• First Landing: December 5th, First Landing is a festival of remembrance and thanks of the pioneers who first set foot on Zhu Que.
• Independence Day: October 23rd, Independence Day is marked with parties and extravagant celebrations.
• Terraforming Day: March 1st, a festival of harvest and feasts, celebrating the very life blood of the planet.
• Victory Day: June 30th, marked with military parades, flyovers and demonstrations of martial prowess.

Gallery

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  Chart detailing two Zhu Que starships in their IGSA-defined colours

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  Power armour colours used by the Zhu Que armed forces