Earth Alliance (The History of the Galaxy)

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Earth Alliance is a fictional political entity in The History of the Galaxy series of novels by Russian writer Andrey Livadny. It was formed through the joining of the Earth nation-states sometime between the 21st and the early-23rd centuries.

[edit] Before the Wars

By the time early colony ships began to leave the Solar System (the period of time known as the "Great Exodus"), Earth was heavily overpopulated. Lack of FTL travel prevented humans from sending out larger numbers of colonists to other systems. Alpha was one the first near-light colony ships equipped with photonic engines which, theoretically, would allow it to reach relativistic speeds. In 2207, it passed Pluto's orbit and engaged the engines. When the ship reached 2/3 of the speed of light, it vanished from sensors. Readings taken during the Alpha's disappearance led to scientists discovering the hypersphere anomaly. In 2217, first ships capable of "submerging" into the hypersphere were built and launched.

The ships discovered that all habitable worlds within one or two jumps from Earth were colonized by the "Great Exodus" ships. The colonists did not much like Earthlings and refused to have anything to do with their homeworld. As such, they refused to accept arrivals of the "Second Exodus".

[edit] The First Galactic War

Tensions were reaching a boiling point. John Winston Hammer, the President of the Earth Alliance, ordered a pre-emptive strike on one of the colonies, Dabog, to submit the colonists under Earth rule. Thus began the First Galactic War between the Earth Alliance and the Free Colonies. Dabog was completely depopulated by the pre-emptive strike, as the population refused to submit and fought the invaders to the last. It was on Dabog that the concept of combat servo-machines (AKA mechs) first became known. The Dabogan walking agrarian machines, equipped with weapons to fight off indigenous predators and clear obstacles, proved to be more than a match to Earth armored vehicles (e.g. tanks, troop transports). Failing to invade the planet with ground troops, the admiral in command of the Earth Strike Fleet ordered the planet bombed with nuclear missiles from orbit. Volunteers from other colonies managed to slip through the blockade and rescue a small number of survivors before Dabog was turned into a radioactive wasteland.

After laying waste to Dabog, Earth Alliance fleets began to attack other colonies. However, the colonists were prepared and fought back. What was supposed to take several weeks (months, at most) turned into a several-decade-long war with both sides sustaining heavy casualties. In the end, the Earth invasion forces were beaten and retreated back to the Solar System.

[edit] The Second Galactic War

This was not to last, however, as the Earth Alliance put all its resources towards rebuilding and improving their space and planetary equipment. To combat the colonial servo-machines, Earth engineers developed a more mechanized version to fight on the front lines. Most of Earth machinery was automated to counteract the colonists' advantage in numbers. Shortly after that, the Second Galactic War began, during which, Earth's population was steadily leaving for new colonies to escape the war.

By the end of the Second Galactic War, barely several million humans were left on Earth. The remaining population moved into several large cities, and Nature began to reclaim her territory. The final battle of the war took place in the Solar System, when the combined fleet of the newly-formed Confederacy of Suns attacked the remaining ships of the Earth Alliance. Shortly before the battle, the admiral in charge of Earth ships deactivated over 80% of the automatic defenses, replacing the machines with humans. His main reason for doing so was the preservation of humanity. If the machines remained online during battle, the Confederate fleet would have been wiped out, and the machines would have moved on to destroy the colonies. Since Earth contained a tiny percentage of human population, there was little chance that humans would ever regain the former glory. As such, the Earth defense fleet had no chance against the invaders. Earth was conquered shortly afterwards, and the President signed an official surrender.

Earth Alliance was no more. Earth remained under a watchful eye of the Confederate Council but was left otherwise alone.

[edit] Current State

By early-39th century, Earth was once again a planet filled with vegetation, as the few remaining cities on the planet was all that was left of civilization. Several important relics of the past were moved to areas closer to the cities and protected from the harshness of nature. The Pacific Ocean was no more. At some point in time, it completely dried out (it is not specified if the cause was natural or manmade) and was also covered with jungles and forests.